The Senate fisheries committee is calling for school boards nationwide to integrate education on seal hunting into their curricula. Blacklock's Reporter says the initiative aims to revive an industry that has struggled to remain economically viable.“Educating young people about the environmental and economic significance of the Canadian seal harvest is of vital importance,” stated the committee’s report, Sealing The Future: A Call To Action. The report emphasized that including lessons on the seal harvest in school curricula would help youth understand and appreciate this Canadian industry.The report recommended using storytelling as an educational tool to convey the social, economic, and sustainability aspects of Canada’s seal harvests. This approach, the committee believes, would help Canadians learn about the impacts of the industry.During a testimony last September, Lorelei Roberts, Assistant Deputy Fisheries Minister for Newfoundland and Labrador, highlighted the lack of knowledge among schoolchildren about sealing. Roberts recounted a conversation with a friend’s nine-year-old daughter who mistakenly believed that baby seals were being killed. Roberts clarified, “We don’t kill baby seals. We kill adult seals and there are a lot of seals, and it is the same as if we have meat from cows, meat from pigs. There is a purpose for an animal.”The seal trade, once valued at $34.3 million annually, has plummeted to around $275,000 due to export bans by the European Union in 2009 and China in 2011. Despite the collapse, Japan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam remain significant markets for Canadian seal products. Hong Kong and Norway also import Canadian seal oil in bulk, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.The committee’s report noted that the industry has not recovered from these bans and is no longer economically viable for most fishers. The Department of Fisheries has not set hunting quotas since 2016, with very low harvest rates for both grey and harp seals between 2018 and 2022.Reviving public interest in sealing will take time, the report acknowledged, but urged the Government of Canada to begin efforts immediately. Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier expressed optimism in her February testimony, comparing the potential resurgence of seal products to the past transformation of lobster’s market value.“If we can eat beef, we can very well eat seal and advertise it,” said Lebouthillier, noting ongoing promotional efforts with the hotel industry to introduce seal dishes.Lebouthillier shared her personal support for the industry, saying, “I wear it and eat it. I’m very positive. We already have companies that are ready to move forward whether it be food for animals, Omega-3, fur, tourism, food for humans.”
