Activists protest in front of the Canadian Embassy in Brussels against seal hunting. In a new offensive, animal rights activists are threatening a boycott of Canada's fish and seafood exports, over an annual cull targeting more than 300,000 seals. (BELGA/Herwig Vergult)

A vast armada of trawlers will fan out among the ice floes off eastern Canada tomorrow as hunters embark on the final phase of the largest seal cull for half a century. By first light on Tuesday the huge ice shelves of the Gulf of St Lawrence will be stained crimson. Permission has been granted by the Canadian authorities for at least 319,500 harp seals to be shot or clubbed to death over the next month. About 95 per cent of these will be less than three months old. Images of young harp seals being bludgeoned to death around Quebec's Isles de la Madeleine in the Gulf will be beamed around the world. This year tensions over the hunt are running higher than ever. Activists have organised a boycott against Canada's seafood products.

However, news emerged yesterday that appeared to contradict claims that this week's culmination of a three-year programme to cull 975,000 seals would never be sanctioned again. Instead the Canadian authorities appear to be on the verge of announcing a five-year culling plan which critics believe could involve the slaughter of more than a million animals. 'They have shown no sign of changing their stance or revising their position on this. We believe it will continue to increase,' said Rosa Hill of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Throughout this week, hunters will trawl the floes of the Gulf before moving east to the more remote ice sheets off Newfoundland. Two decades ago international outrage nearly finished the hunt. In 1985, just 13,334 pups were culled but, with the emergence of new markets in Russia and China, the number killed for their pelts has gradually climbed. Seal genitals are often hacked off and sold to the Far East, where they are prized as an aphrodisiac.

Some seals will be killed using hakapics, a wooden pole with a metal spike at the end. The Canadian government defends its use as humane, but footage last year suggested young animals were left convulsing after initial strikes failed to kill them instantly. The remainder are shot with rifles or shotguns.

© Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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