The Seal Hunt

Examines the controversy surrounding the Newfoundland seal hunt, including its history.

The Newfoundland seal hunt was based on the harp and, to a lesser extent, hood seal species. The harp and hood are hair seals valued for their skin, fat, and hair. This document presents information on the harps and hoods. It examines the origins and early development of the hunt among Native peoples and the Europeans. It looks at the seal hunt, 1793-1861 and 1862-1939; the vessel-based hunt 1862-1939; the seal hunt since 1939; and the vessel-based hunt since 1939. It also provides an update to January 1988.

Icy Battleground is the first comprehensive account of the forty-year political controversy over the seal hunt. With a foreword by the Honourable John C. Crosbie, it traces the rise of the anti-sealing protests, the emergence of the Inte ational Fund for Animal Welfare, its vigorous and unrelenting campaign to end commercial sealing, and its strategies in mobilising pressure in Canada and abroad. It also assesses the Canadian gove ment's counter-strategies to continue the hunt as well as the challenges that emotionally targeted campaigns like the seal hunt pose for gove ment decision-makers.