Sealer Dave Patey of St. Anthony, standing, speaks with Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Tom Hedderson at the Canadian Sealer’s Association meeting in Rocky Harbour. Friday. The group gave Hedderson a seal skin hat. — Star Photo by Ashley Fitzpatrick

A sealer since the age of 16, Dave Patey is now 49 and unsure of what he will be doing this time next year.

He doesn’t know whether he will be preparing to hunt seals, or looking elsewhere for the seasonal financial assistance that has traditionally been provided to him through the sale of seal pelts.

 “For them (the ‘protestors’) it’s not much,” said Patey of the money he makes through the seal hunt. “But two or three thousand dollars for me, to start off the year in the fishery — it’s big.”

Patey was at the Fishermen’s Landing Inn in Rocky Harbour on Friday, along with 30 to 40 other sealers and processors, for the annual meeting of the Canadian Sealers Association.

The association has fewer than 1,000 direct members, according to executive director Frank Pinhorn. Yet it collects levies on 85 per cent of the seals landed and thus, said Pinhorn, takes on the role of acting as a voice for all sealers and the sealing industry.

Those connected to that industry, like Patey, are currently waiting to hear, once and for all, whether or not the European Union will ban Canadian seal products.

“There would probably not be much of a sealing industry this year,” said Pinhorn of what the result of a full ban on products would mean for 2009. He said sealers would find it difficult selling pelts this year, as processors would be uncertain of how much product they could sell and traders would be denied the traditional sales pathways, through Europe, to markets in Russia and other countries. 

“There’s a wait and see approach. The vote (by the full European Parliament) was supposed to happen April 1, but it’s been delayed to the 25th or 26th,” said Pinhorn. 

That places the vote after this year’s main seal harvest on the Newfoundland “Front,” where approximately 70 per cent of seals taken in Canada are killed, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Countries including the United States, the Netherlands and Belgium have already individually instituted a ban on Canadian seal products, but a final vote for a full ban from the parliament would be devastating to the industry, Pinhorn said.

In his speech at the sealers’ meeting, provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Tom Hedderson said that, with the extension of the European parliamentary vote, what happens this year on the Front will be particularly important to the promotion of Canadian seal products as “humane” products.

“We’ve got to be more than extra careful,” said Hedderson, who urged sealers to “keep the faith” in the industry while holding high standards in their work.

“A lot of responsibility falls on your collective shoulders to move this industry forward,” he said.

Hedderson also told the sealers he will be introducing “some sort of motion,” possibly a private member’s bill, within the House of Assembly “that will again reiterate our (provincial government’s) support for the hunt.”

When asked about the threat of action in response to a ban, under international trade agreements, the minister said the action would be a federal decision. He also said that the federal government has been holding those cards tight to the chest.

“The strategy has never been shared with us,” said Hedderson. “I’ve asked repeatedly for that strategy and they’ve avoided it.” Still, said Hedderson, he hopes there is ultimately no ban to respond to. 

While awaiting the decision, Pinhorn said maintaining best practices, and removing the ability for anti–sealing groups, for example the Humane Society of the United States, to create well–publicized “bad practice videos,” is the best way sealers can contribute to the case for allowing seal products.

“What we can do as individuals is that through education and training and experience, I won’t say we can eliminate the bad practices out there, but we can reduce the numbers,” said Pinhorn. “We can do it right. We have to do it right.”

According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 5,000 to 6,000 people in this province derive some income from sealing.

The department estimates the population of seals at 5.6 million animals. In 2009, the total allowable catch for harp seals is 280,000 animals, for grey seals is 50,000 and for hooded seals is 8,200 animals (for a total of 338,200).