Farewell to seals?

1996/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ekologia

The Norwegian and Canadian governments have given permission to kill 300,000 seals. Canada has distributed nearly 10,000 licenses among fishermen and around 3,000 pesetas will be distributed for each cleaned seal. The objective of this “Project” is to achieve the disappearance of 1,250,000 seals by the year 2000, which is a great benefit for the fishing sector. These are the data that have been officially given. And hence the anger of readers, environmental groups and citizens.

In fact, it can be said that it is not possible to establish a direct relationship between what seals eat and the decline of the cod population in recent years, as pointed out by the International Organization for the Protection of Animals. According to Greenpeace, it cannot be said that the cleaning of seals contributes to maintaining the cod population and, therefore, there is no evidence in this regard, so they ask that the authorization granted by governments be withdrawn.

About 70% of the Canadian population opposes government authorization. The Norwegian government has underlined the ecological value of this measure, indicating that the seal population was growing excessively and that it will promote an “ecological balance”.

The market response is yet to be discovered. Greenpeace has denounced the upcoming launch of a new campaign to market seafood meat by both governments. The seal penis, for example, is used as an aphrodisiac in some places in Asia and usually hovers around 25,000 pesetas per unit.