Are Seals Overpopulated?
No. The Canadian government and sealing industry have, at various times, tried to claim that the harp seal population has “tripled” over the past three decades, or that the harp seal population is “exploding,” or that seals are overpopulated. This is misleading at best. The harp seal population in the Northwest Atlantic is the world’s largest; it is a migratory population that spans the distance between Canada and Greenland, and is supposed to number in the many millions. In the 1950s and ’60s, over-hunting wiped out close to two-thirds of the harp seal population. By 1974, the population was considered to be in serious trouble, and senior government scientists recommended suspending the commercial hunt for at least 10 years. In the early 1980s, the European Union banned the import of whitecoat seal skins, effectively removing the principal market for the hunt at the time.
No. The Canadian government and sealing industry have, at various times, tried to claim that the harp seal population has “tripled” over the past three decades, or that the harp seal population is “exploding,” or that seals are overpopulated. This is misleading at best. The harp seal population in the Northwest Atlantic is the world’s largest; it is a migratory population that spans the distance between Canada and Greenland, and is supposed to number in the many millions. In the 1950s and ’60s, over-hunting wiped out close to two-thirds of the harp seal population. By 1974, the population was considered to be in serious trouble, and senior government scientists recommended suspending the commercial hunt for at least 10 years. In the early 1980s, the European Union banned the import of whitecoat seal skins, effectively removing the principal market for the hunt at the time. For the next decade, the numbers of seals killed in the hunt dramatically declined, and the harp seal population b
