Germany, Newfoundland and the Seal Hunt

First, to those who expected my commentary on the Delta Zeta scandal, I appologize it sould be published by Tuesday.

Secondly, I would like to say I saw a seal in the harbor on Monday and I have to tell you, he was so cute. I wanted to yell to him stay here buddy don't go to Canada.

Well, we got Belgium and soon we well get Germany. Germany is looking to ban trade in Canadian Seal fur. Horst Seehofer, German Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (I'm so glad I don't have to write that title every time I sign my name) announced that the government will introduce legislation to ban seal products from Canada.

However there are many people – especially in Canada who think this is a bad idea. An MP from Newfoundland has challenged Germany's own environmental record, by saying it should get its house in order with the deer and boar hunt, before bad mouthing Canada. Scott Simms, a liberal MP from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (for the remainder of this article I will refer to the province as "Newfoundland," the mainland territory as "Labrador" and the island as "the Island of Newfoundland"), has called for retaliatory trade policy. Mr. Simms wants to ban German venison and boar meat.

Mr. Simms represents a portion of the population who feels that the annual seal hunt is better for Canada than the decrease in seal populations are. But, Mr. Simms is playing a shell game. Let's cover some of this:

MYTH ..1:
The seal hunt is humane.

REALITY:
The Seal hunt is considered so inhumane by most people that the United States banned imports of seal products in 1972. First, that was a long time ago. Second, that means that Richard Nixon signed the bill. Apparently, the Canadian Seal Hunt is worse than using the CIA and FBI to spy on domestic political rivals!

MYTH ..2:
The seal hunt is of major income source for Canada.

REALITY:
The state sponsored CBC– the Pravda of the Great White North – has perpetuated this myth by giving raw numbers that do seem impressive. CA$16.5 million is earned in the seal hunt. That seems like a lot of money until you consider that the GDP or Newfoundland is CA$16 billion. That means the seal hunt nationwide brings in slightly more than one tenth of one percent of the GDP of its second smallest provincial economy. The Canadian National GDP is almost CA$2 trillion, so the seal hunt brings in 8.25^-4% of the economy – that's so small I can't even tell what that number is! The GDP per capita in Newfoundland, in Purchase Power Parity, is about equal to that of Austria at over CA$41,000 (over $35,000 – US). That would mean without the seal hunt Newfies would only be making CA$40,590 on average. Should we get the World Bank to put you on the list ahead of Somalia if you can't club baby seals?

MYTH ..3
Seals are eating all the fish.

REALITY
Even Canada's Pravda accepts, and I quote: "But both sides [pro-seal and pro-clubbing-baby-seals] now appear to agree that seals and cod can coexist." Really, you mean to tell me that the seals aren't destroying the North Atlantic Cod fisheries? You mean seals are not eating up their source of food to a point where they would destroy their own population? Thank you for such a admission.

MYTH ..4
Culling quotas are put in place to control the seal population.

REALITY
Well, this seems like you just made it up. I do not seem to remember seals overwhelming Nova Scotia. The Halifax government has not been overrun by the Emperor of Harp Seals! And, if the hunt was to cull this overwhelming seal population, would it really matter whether Germany would buy the products.

So, if you are a German citizen I urge you to call your MP and tell them to vote for the ban. And, Mr. Simms, I tell you what, I'll never buy German boar meat again if you support the ban of the Seal Hunt. Deal?




You can find a list of restaraunts that are boycotting Canadian Seafood until the hunt is over at this link:
http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/protect_seals/why_a_boycott_of_canadian_seafood/restaurants_who_support_boycott.html