Quebec sealers praise new personal-use seal-hunting licences in P.E.I. and N.B.
CBC
Quebec sealers are praising a new federal pilot project to expand personal-use seal-hunting licences to people on Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick — and an animal welfare group says the move is "not really a concern" if the hunt is carried out humanely and sustainably.
The licences are a "great idea," according to Gil Thériault, director of the Intra-Quebec Sealers Association, an advocacy group representing sealers in the province.
"We've been expecting that for many years — and demanding that for many years," Thériault said Wednesday.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced Tuesday that it will grant an unspecified number of personal-use licences this year to hunt grey and harp seals in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.
Each licence will let the holder harvest up to six harp and/or grey seals, DFO said in a news release. Those are two of the four kinds of seals that spend at least part of the year in the waters around P.E.I.
Until now, only hunters in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec could apply for such licences in Eastern Canada.
The changes to personal-use seal licences came in response to "growing interest" in the hunt, according to DFO.
CBC News reached out to DFO for comment, but the department did not make a spokesperson available.
Thériault said he's witnessed growing interest as well.
He said about 25 prospective hunters, most of them involved in the fisheries, attended an information session about personal-use licences he hosted on P.E.I. in August.
"There's a will," he said, before adding that it will take time for hunters on the Island to familiarize themselves with how best to take the animals.
Given that time, however, Thériault hopes the personal-use licences will be a first step toward the return of a wider commercial seal hunt in the region.
"What we want to do is reinvent seal hunting and spread that recipe somehow in the Maritimes and elsewhere in Quebec," he said.
He views seal hunting as a potential solution to improve fish stocks by limiting the "overabundant" population of seals that are now feeding on species like cod, squid and herring.
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