Sea of Slaughter

by Farley Mowat

  This is the mantra; one which by constant repetition has gained the semblance of truth and which is now so powerfully established in the public mind that those who rule us can safely orchestrate the massacre of the seals.

  Although for a few years in the 1990s a temporarily aroused humanity on both sides of the Atlantic was able, through the use of economic boycotts, to force Canada to cease slaughtering the remaining ice seals, the Big Lie has now gained supremacy and the slaughter has begun anew—and with increased vigour. The largest massacre of any marine mammals—probably of any large mammals in the sea or on the land—is again taking place each spring in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the northern coast of Newfoundland. Between 1998 and 2002 the skins of about 1,400,000 harp and hood seals of all ages, including hundreds of thousands that had barely been weaned, were tallied by Fisheries protection officers. But this figure, horrendous as it is, takes no account of seals illegally landed, or killed or fatally wounded and not recovered during the gun hunt, which represents a major part of the slaughter. If these additional deaths are factored in, the total kill rises to at least two million seals, and may considerably exceed that figure.

  The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and its provincial counterparts assert that an “exploding” harp seal population currently exceeds five million animals (independent assessments put that figure at less than three million) and, simply in order to keep the explosion in check, we must “cull” (that sanitary euphemism for “kill”) at least 350,000 a year over and above the toll taken by bad ice years and other natural causes. To this end, the federal government has given the seal “fishery” a TAC (total allowable catch) of 975,000 over the next three years. The TAC on seals is seldom enforced, however, and in recent years the actual kill has often exceeded it.

  There is no question as to what is afoot. When natural losses, the untallied collateral kill, and at least 150,000 killed annually in Greenland and Canadian Arctic waters are factored in, it seems certain that the death toll will suffice to bring about the effective extermination of the ice seals.

  Will that bring back the cod and the salmon and all the rest of the vanished multitudes that once abounded in and around the Sea of Slaughter? Or will it simply add one more ghastly act of biocide to our bloody history?

  Acknowledgements

  This book has benefited greatly from the co-operation of the several scientists and specialists who have reviewed it. However, I have not always accepted their emendations or criticisms and must, in any case, remain solely responsible for any factual errors and for the interpretations I have placed upon events and circumstances.

  My gratitude goes to: Dr. D.M. Lavigne, Associate Professor, College of Biological Science, University of Guelph, for his painstaking and illuminating comments on the chapters dealing with seals and walrus; Dr. D.N. Nettleship, Seabird Research Unit, Canadian Wildlife Service, for his considerable assistance with the chapters dealing with seabirds; Dr. Edward Mitchell, Arctic Biological Station, for his criticisms and suggestions regarding the chapters on whales and porpoises; Dr. Steve Wendt, Chief, Populations and Survey Divisions, Migratory Birds Branch, Canadian Wildlife Service, who provided material assistance for the chapters on birds other than seabirds; Dr. Nick Novakowski, formerly of the Canadian Wildlife Service, for his comments on the chapters dealing with land mammals; Dr. D.J. Scarratt, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, for his review of the fish chapters; Mr. Steve Best, consultant to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, for information on the animal welfare movement.

  My heartfelt thanks for what must often have seemed like a hopeless task go to those who helped put the book together: to Alan Cooke, formerly of the Scott Polar Institute, who directed the historical research program; to Ramsey Derry, who took on the formidable task of editing the book; to Mary Elliott, who typed its many versions; to Harold Horwood, Jack McClelland, and Peter Davison, who encouraged and advised me as I struggled through the most difficult book I have ever tried to write.

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