Humane, sustainable Canadian seal harvests an environmental necessity, says USIANL

March 12, 2025

ST. JOHN’S, Newfoundland and Labrador, March 12, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The United Seal Industry Association of Newfoundland & Labrador (USIANL) has created a fact-based campaign explaining the environmental necessity for Canada to carry out sustainable seal harvests. The campaign is being piloted in N.L., Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Vancouver.

USIANL was created to help Canadians understand that humane, sustainable seal harvests are an environmental necessity. The harp seal population off N.L. is the largest in the world – numbering in the millions. Not only are harp seals depleting important fish species and everything those species feed on, but fierce competition for food is putting their own well-being at risk.

“To put harp seals’ consumption levels in perspective, they eat more Atlantic cod in one year than Newfoundland & Labrador’s fish harvesters caught during the 30-year period from 1992 to 2021. And Atlantic cod is only one species that harp seals prey on,” says USIANL President, Sherry Glynn.

According to Glynn, “Harp seals aren’t the only seal species off Canada’s east coast threatening the marine environment. According to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, grey seals in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence are causing the local extinction of four fish species. They’re also a serious threat to the region’s mackerel stocks.”

Neither harp seals nor grey seals are endangered.

According to Eldred Woodford, Vice President of USIANL, “The process used to harvest seals is as humane – if not more humane – than most other methods used to harvest wild and domesticated animals.”

The evidence of over-population supports sustainable seal harvests. Veterinarians validate the harvest is humane. But for Canada’s seal industry to conduct the sustainable seal harvests needed to restore balance and allow the marine ecosystems to rebuild, there must be markets for seal products.

In 2011, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) set the annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for harp seals at 400,000. Yet over the last four years, the average number of harp seals landed was 31,244 – less than 8 per cent of the TAC – because this was all that was required to meet current market demand.

This campaign presents the facts about harp and grey seals so the people of Canada can feel confident buying seal products – knowing that they’re helping to protect the marine environment.

According to Dion Dakins, Treasurer of USIANL, “At no time in our country’s history has it been more important to buy Canadian. Our humane, sustainable seal industry is 100 per cent Canadian owned. It produces nutritious food, healthy Omega-3 supplements, and sustainable clothing – right here in Canada. It helps address local food security challenges and is safe from the inflationary effects of U.S. tariffs.”

The Fish, Food and Allied Workers, the Canadian Sealers Association, and Carino Processing Ltd. are the founding members of USIANL.

NOTE TO EDITORS: View the video at the heart of this campaign here.

Fact Sheet

The world’s largest harp seal population, numbering in the millions, lives off N.L., Canada.

SOURCES:

DFO. 2020. 2019 Status of Northwest Atlantic Harp Seals, Pagophilus groenlandicus. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2020/020. https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/csas-sccs/Publications/SAR-AS/2020/2020_020-eng.html

Tinker, M.T., Stenson, G.B., Mosnier, A., and Hammill, M.O. 2023. Estimating Abundance of Northwest Atlantic Harp Seal Using a Bayesian Modelling Approach. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2023/068. iv + 56 p https://dam-oclc.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/2b08ec38-baa3-453c-877b-d594985af96d

Overpopulation is putting the harp seals off N.L., Canada at risk.

SOURCE:

Stenson, G. B., Buren, A. D., and Koen-Alonso, M. The impact of changing climate and abundance on reproduction in an ice-dependent species, the Northwest Atlantic harp seal, Pagophilus groenlandicus. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 73: 250–262. https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/73/2/250/2614432