The calm before the slaughter
Mom and whitecoat pup (Photo: Mark Glover/HSI)
Today I was fortunate enough to experience for the second time in my life what many Nova Scotians never get to experience – I was lucky enough to spend a few quiet hours with the grey seals on Hay Island.
We set off shortly after 9:00 a.m., under the watchful eye of a sealer and a DFO official standing together watching us as we departed in our zodiac.
As we skimmed along the ocean, the waves swelling around us and beautiful long-tailed and eiderdown ducks flying past, my emotions were chaotic – my excitement to see the seals again was tempered with sadness, for I knew many of the pups I would spend time with today are marked for a horrific death.
I’m here in Sydney with Humane Society International to document the upcoming slaughter of these beautiful pups. Within the next few days, a group of Nova Scotia fishermen wielding wooden bats will descend on Hay Island, herd all of these seals together – including nursing moms and whitecoats - and bludgeon to death every single moulted pup they find. It’s the third year the massacre of greys on Hay Island - part of the protected Scaterie Island Wilderness Area – is to take place with the blessing of the Nova Scotia Environment Minister. I was present on Hay Island to document the slaughter in 2008 and the Horror I witnessed is forever imprinted on my brain and my heart.
This defenceless grey seal pup shortly will die a horrific death at the hands of Cape Breton sealers (Photo: Bridget Curran/ACASC)
But today was all about life; not death. Today we were visiting the seals to photograph and to spend time with them. Today we were there to document their life. Sadly, the next time we are there on the island we must document their death.
We arrived on the island just as the clouds rolled away and the sun made its appearance. Pups who had shed - or were still shedding – their fluffy white coats were scattered around the island, some in groups, others more solitary. The pups were just hanging out, some lying on their backs, eyes closed, a look of bliss on their face as they basked in the sun. Others lazily scratched their sides with their flippers and called out to each other across the island. Large adult females nursed their whitecoat young while keeping a close eye on my movements. Massive bulls hoping to mate with the females once the pups were weaned were never far in the distance, patiently waiting.
What sort of person is capable of bludgeoning these pups with a baseball bat? Dingwall sealers Robert Courtney and Pat Briand do it every year. (Photo: Bridget Curran/ACASC)
It would be so simple and inexpensive to establish seal-watching tours in Cape Breton. Hay Island is not far from the mainland – at most, a 45-minute boat ride. People would pay money to do what I did today. So why isn’t it happening? Because a handful of fishermen who enjoy killing seals continue to lobby our government for access to all grey seals in this province, even on protected land, such as Hay Island and Sable Island. Because our federal and provincial governments are rotten to the core and eager to sacrifice seals to secure the votes of fishing and sealing industries. And because not enough Nova Scotians challenge the lies their government tells them about seals.
Bridget Curran with baby grey seals (Photo: Rebecca Aldworth/HSI)
And it is all lies. Government and industry claim the seals are eating all the fish, despite there being no science to support that claim. Government claims there are markets for seal products, when in truth world markets are closing and every day more people around the world shun the products of this inherently cruel industry. There is absolutely no reason this massacre must continue.
Anyone with an ounce of compassion in their heart and logic in their head who could stand on Hay Island and see what I saw today would agree — seals on “protected” land should be protected, not sacrificed to blood-thirsty commercial industry lobbyists armed with baseball bats and box cutters. Make seal-watching the activity on Hay Island; not seal-killing. It’s a no-brainer. Well, it should be, anyway. But then, we’re dealing with a government that assigned both Environment and Fisheries portfolios to one Minister – clearly a conflict of interest - so brains obviously aren’t part of the equation here.
Shame on Nova Scotia’s MLAs who voted to open Hay Island to commercial sealers. Shame on NDP Environment/Fisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau for refusing to listen to reason and condemning these pups to a painful and terrifying death. Shame on my government for handing OUR land over to seal killers and using OUR tax dollars to fund the slaughter.
The opening day of the Hay Island grey seal slaughter was Monday, February 8th. For some reason the sealers have stayed on shore, and the grey seals have been left in peace to live for one more week. But the sealers will not stay away forever. In a few days, they will go to the island with their crude wooden bats. But we’ll be there with our cameras to document the cruelty. We will document the horrific death of these defenceless seal pups and we’ll use the footage to shut down all markets and in turn shut down this horrendous industry forever.
TAKE ACTION TODAY TO STOP THE MASSACRE OF BABY GREY SEALS ON PROTECTED LAND.
Other ways to help seals: