Seal slaughtering had taken place on the ice floes off Canada’s East coast in two areas which are the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the east of the Magdalen Islands for almost half a decade. Each year, thousands of Canadian fishermen murder and shoot two-weeks to two-months old seals, drag them and skin the pups while still alive and conscious. They sell the skin for leather and fashion garments while the remains of the body are left on the ice to rot. I believe that the process of clubbing seals is cruel and that it should stop before the population of seals is endangered.
Harp seals are usually the primary target of the seal hunt. According to the Humane Society of the United States, 98% of harp seals were killed just under the age of three months. The seals are slaughtered at about 25 days old because harp seals lose their white coats at about 12 to 14 days of age. Over the last 50 years, seals caught ranged from 6,399 seals to 255,056 seals and nearly one million seals had been killed over the last three years. DFO stated that the seal population had decreased three times as many sea...
Suppose you were kidnapped from your family as a child by an alien species while your family watched in despair, crying out helplessly for your kidnappers to not rip you away from them. Now imagine then being strapped down and transported to a place unknown and once you arrive, you see that some of the other children that were also kidnapped have died. You then witness something that will forever remain engraved into your mind; you witness those monsters that took you hostage cut the children open, fill their bodies up with rocks, tie an anchor onto their feet and throw them into the ocean. The monsters then throw you into a tiny cage; you learn that you will not only never see your family again and die in that confinement but you will also work for these monsters and perform as a source of entertainment for them. You spend every night locked away into an even smaller steel cage that gives no freedom of movement at all and aren’t fed if you displease your new masters. Although this sounds like an outline for a horror movie, it is not. It is happening in real life and in our world. It is horrific, not only unethical but inhumane. This depicts the capturing process and life in captivity for public display of Orcinus Orcas, popularly known as Killer Whales since 1961. Although some laws regarding the capturing of whales have changed, whales are still being treated unethically. Just as inhumane as it is for this to be done to humans, it is equally inhumane for it to be done to animals. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, inhumanity is “the quality or stage of being cruel to other people or to animals” (dictionary.com) and that is what their captivity is...
The Sea Shepherds are group of volunteers who try to protect the sea animals, and capture criminals who kill the animals without permits. Their website has many purposes, one dedicate to collect donations from the reader. Furthermore, they want to protect the ocean wildlife. The website audience includes people who want to protect the ocean, and they want to save the sea animals which will likely be extinct. They offer the audience a chance to donate, volunteer, and stay up to date with ongoing issues involving marine life. This website is outstanding because the sea shepherds host a successful website that effectively reaches out to the audience through appealing to the reader's emotions, logic, and credibility.
In the past twenty years a large amount of bottlenose dolphin have been killed due to the tuna fishery. In the Eastern Pacific swim large schools of tuna, these shoals tend to be under herds of dolphins, for some unexplained reason. Because of this, fishermen can easily find schools of tuna. The tuna are being caught under purse seine nets, which encircles the shoals of tuna and then is pulled back on board the fishing vessel, catching both tuna and dolphin. Initially the mortality rate was 500,000 each year for dolphins alone. Although some efforts are made to encourage the dolphins to leave the net by backing down part of the net, which allows the dolphins to escape, there are still a large number of mortalities (Bryant). On the other hand, in the last few years there has been dramatic progress in stopping the fishing industries from using purse sine nets. It has been found that dolphins are in immediate danger of extinction if these fishing techniques don’t stop.
The Makah’s seemingly domestic issue of whaling has and is taking on a larger international problem. The United States plays a large part in policing the hunting of whales, one of the most recent examples being the U.S.’s ...
Save the World: Save the sea otters During the 18th and 19th centuries, sea otters were hunted for their luxurious pelts, and by the early 1900s, the species was believed to be extinct in California. (Carswell) Why do we care you ask, well not only are they super cute and eat with their hands. Apparently, a healthy population of sea otters keeps the sea urchin population in check. An unhealthy or small population of sea otters allows the sea urchin’s number to explode thus decimating kelp beds, which is the sea urchin’s food source, and causing a “chain reaction that depletes the food supply for other marine animals consequently causing their decline.
A study in 2007 by an international panel of veterinary and zoology experts showed that 66% of seal hunting cases were either, the Canadian seal hunters left the seals to suffer for long periods of time or they failed to ensure if the seals were dead before clubbing or shooting them. Another study in 2007 showed that 15% of the seal hunts observed by footage were killed in a mannerly way, but what is considered to be “mannerly” slaughter. Even though animal cruelty is a major problem itself, the methods by which the seals are being killed is even more atrocious. The process used to kill the seals was to club or shoot them and then let them bleed out or the seals were being skinned alive. Furthermore, 95% of seals killed in Canada for commercial seal hunting were normally between the ages of twelve days to three and a half months. During the spring, hunters took their boats and attempted to ...
Female gray seals can be different than male gray seals. Female gray seals give birth to one pup a time. The mother seal only takes care of her baby for about 3 weeks. Female gray seals live up to 35 years old. Female gray seals can be 8 feet long and can weigh up to 450 lbs.
Parliament of Canada. (n.d.). Northern Cod: a failure of Canadian fisheries management. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from Parliament of Canada: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=2144982&Mode=1&Parl=38&Ses=1&Language=E&File=21
In the conclusion of “Bloody Ice,” the author makes the suggestion of ranching the seals. But how is that a better method to regulate the killing of seals? Ranching seals might come off as inhumane and cruel to somebody else. The author needs to define what is inhumane and cruel. The author states, “According to Oceans magazine, before the limit of 180,000 seals was established in 1950, the number of seals had dwindled from 3,300,000 to 125,000,000.” That is a large reduction in the number of seals dying. The author claims, ”Now, even with this allotment, the seals are being killed off at an almost greater rate than they can remultiply.” It doesn’t prove to the audience that with current regulations that their is a danger of the extension of seals.
Whaling has been a practice that has been around for thousands of years. Whaling has cultural significance for several cultures in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and there is evidence of whaling since 3000 BCE (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2016).
With a coastline of over 202 000 km and over a fourth of the world’s freshwater resources, it is no wonder why Canada’s fishing industry is a huge part of its economy.1 Canada exports more than 75% of its fish to over 130 countries worldwide. Many of the 7 million people who reside on the coast depend on the ocean’s resources. In total, Canada’s entire fishing industry is worth around 5$ billion dollars a year, being one of the world’s most valuable. However, the coasts have not been treated by respect; overfishing, over consumption, and wasteful practices has deteriorated, not only the industry, but the ecosystems and fish populations. This is a huge global issue; the worldwide collapse of fisheries has been project for 2048. Slowly, as the trends continue, we will inevitably see many fish species start to disappear. In fact, the ill-treatment of species on the Canadian border has already devastated a large specie, the cod.
... In the debate over the ethics of whaling and its regulation since the formation of the IWC, widely diverse arguments have been made concerning the legitimacy of the whaling enterprise and the economic, ethical, and practical aspects of international regulation. Different views of ecology, culture, and legitimacy as they pertain to a valued resource and its exploitation for human purposes. While it is safe to say one must preserve the historical and cultural value of whaling nations and nations around the world, it can also be said of animals. While many nations continue to cling to their cultural ancestry, background of whaling, and the right for scientific research, it is proven that such human endeavors must be carefully and faithfully regulated.
Sharks kill an average of about 12 humans per year. Humans kill an average of about 11,417 sharks per hour. Unfortunately, that number may not stop growing unless action is taken. Shark slaughter is becoming an ever expanding issue that could have devastating effects if it is not stopped. As a result of a tremendous increase of demand in shark fins in recent years, sharks are being finned and thrown back into the water where they are left to suffer an excruciating death which can take days to occur. Not only is the act cruel, but it also disrupts the natural ecosystem and may cause irreparable damage. Due to all of these effects, shark slaughter needs to be stopped, sooner than later.
It is no secret that sharks have a bad reputation for being blood-thirsty man-killers. Sharks are known as the “killers of the sea.” Every year, on average, 10 people are killed by sharks; however, every second 3 sharks are slaughtered by humans. So who is the real “killer of the sea?” Sharks are victims to a cruel and inhumane practice known as finning. Finning is a practice that is more practiced in the pacific today but used to be practiced all around the world. Finning refers to when commercial fishermen will pull a shark onto the boat and slice off the fins. The typical target fins that are cut off the shark are the primary dorsal fin, secondary dorsal fin, the lower caudal fin, anal fin, pelvic fin, and the pectoral fins. The removal of these fins leaves the shark a slender, finless carcass. After cutting the fins off, the fisherman toss the still living shark back into the water to die a gruesome and painful death. The practice of finning sharks should be banned and enforced internationally.
Throughout Canada’s economy, many industries factor how Canada makes money such as the mining industry, oil and natural gas industry, forest industry and even the agricultural industry. Although the most quick and deadly decline in an industry occurred the fishing industry. The fishing industry happened along east and west coastal areas where Atlantic cod or salmon were abundantly found while today the population of salmon is almost extinct and the moratorium in NL stands to protect fish in Canada. Today hardly any fish are able to reproduce themselves in the coastal seas where fishes were abundant about 30 years ago. The dramatic collapse of the fish population was of the regarding reasons the use of modern technology, mismanagement of the government and overfishing. To begin, fishing was done on a renewable basis by waiting until the fish were migrating and selected the fish they wanted. However, today both coasts of Canada’s fishery does not exist mainly due to the fact, after the 1950’s the new use of technology such as violent new boats with radar that have a electronic navigation systems and sonar allowed fisherman to follow the fish to their homes even in winter. This caused fisherman to fish year round, day and night, even in ice to the homes of fish. In addition, the use of huge nets also swept up many non-commercial species or commercial fish so young that they should have been left in the ocean to reproduce. In addition, one-third of the fish caught was actually taken to the market to sell while the rest were dumped (killed). The use of technology killed more fishes than any other centuries of fishing. The use of modern technology was not monitored thus killing more fish. With thousands of fish commercial or not the...