Baby Seal Hunt?

[Surrey Boy]

Was wondering if there is a seal harvest for recreational hunters on the east coast? My dad would love a sealskin blanket for his boat, and I'd rather stay in the country than go to Kamchatka.

[sparkes3]

oh i cant wait for this one.bring on the popcorn.but im in if you can get one started i gotta go find my hackapick

[J_T]

Probably is. Just not that common. All you require is an ocean going icebreaker vessel and a club. A used Icebreaker can run around $1million (well worth it for the hunt) Clubs would fall under the traditional only season.

[sparkes3]

yes there is a harvest for seals and i never had a icebreaker to use but im not there anymore, but i will see if i can dig you up a number or two

[slayer B]

well I just did a quick google search and there is a story in the wesern star about a rec hunter and his limit is 6 per season. I think its in Labrador but i'm not sure. sounds fun though, we need one of those on the west coast

[835]

i dont really know if im down with the whole clubbing seal thing.

[log_roller]

Was wondering if there is a seal harvest for recreational hunters on the east coast? My dad would love a sealskin blanket for his boat, and I'd rather stay in the country than go to Kamchatka.

I'm not cool with the whole clubbing part,I would love the opportunity to hunt them with a rifle, I have been brought up to believe in giving the animals I kill a quick death , I have watched seal hunts on the Internet and I personally don't believe they are getting that respect ,I could sit there all day and shoot them no problems at all but I don't think I could club them , The industry gets alot of negative attention and it always will but I don't think It would have as much attention if they used a better method of killing , I have watched clubbing deaths of animals in my travels , they like to use sledge hammers on pigs in Costa Rica and believe me theres no such thing as a clean kill when it comes to clubbing ...my opinion

[ElkMasterC]

You also can't kill "baby" seals, meaning white coats. Nice thread title though. ;-)
They have to start the molting process. It's only about two weeks of age, but that wide-eyed white coat seal is off limits.
It's also the time they're being abandoned by their mothers, so that Hakapik might help with alleviating postpartum stress. ;-)
I'd take a few if the meat was good, cuz I'd tan and use the hides, but once again, the bashing in of the brains with the club thing fails to incite my interest.

[Dannybuoy]

I'm not cool with the whole clubbing part,I would love the opportunity to hunt them with a rifle, I have been brought up to believe in giving the animals I kill a quick death , I have watched seal hunts on the Internet and I personally don't believe they are getting that respect ,I could sit there all day and shoot them no problems at all but I don't think I could club them , The industry gets alot of negative attention and it always will but I don't think It would have as much attention if they used a better method of killing , I have watched clubbing deaths of animals in my travels , they like to use sledge hammers on pigs in Costa Rica and believe me theres no such thing as a clean kill when it comes to clubbing ...my opinion
Not sure if they still kill sheep, goats , calfs at the slaughter houses by "clubbing" them but I can remember see the old butcher up at Star Meats in abby whacking em with a big ol sledge hammer ... they never felt a thing ! so the whole in humane theory doesnt float with me ...

[gibblewabble]

I second that when we slaughtered cows on my grandfathers ranch for the family the old sledge to the forehead did it every time, now the first year my dad decided to use his rifle that was a differrent story. The sledge....their knees buckle instantly and thats it... game over.

[KB90]

whacking em with a big ol sledge hammer ... they never felt a thing ! so the whole inhumane theory doesnt float with me ...

One 22 shell between the eyes would do the same, and gives a better image to the public than clubbing.

[gibblewabble]

One 22 shell between the eyes would do the same, and gives a better image to the public than clubbing.
It would work on seals I agree but not so well with larger animals, I was just saying it isnt as cruel as it looks, hell most guys club fish but I prefer to break their necks its a 6 of one half dozen the other thing.

[Surrey Boy]

I was thinking my .243 would do well, and maybe a snare to keep them from falling under the ice. Isn't it like shooting big wet gophers in the cold? They've got certain holes they have to surface at, and it's just guessing which one is next.

[Surrey Boy]

As for the butcher thing, the dairy farm where I work weekends uses a .22, but we've been out of shells before and a hammer did fine. It's illegal to discharge a firearm in Langley or Surrey, so I don't know how we are supposed to put the girls down.

[Surrey Boy]

Newfoundland and Labrador website lists all the same species we have here, so I guess I'll call Mr. Penner and tell him he forgot to list the prices for a seal tag. Is it going to be on my hunting licence or my fishing licence? Does it depend on the method of harvest?

[gibblewabble]

I am thinking a bow with my fishing reel on it so they cant get away:smile:

[wildprotien]

One 22 shell between the eyes would do the same, and gives a better image to the public than clubbing.

Problem there Kyle is shots going everwhere on the ice flows and people getting killed.
I think there is a product out there that will work now that people are becoming more concerned.
However not much diff seeing a seal kicking and balling then seeing a downed deer doing the shaking and balling ... or a grouse flapping all over the road. .... a deer taking 15 minutes to die after being shot with an arrow.... A chicken or a turkey hanging upside down in shackles in a kill house flapping like crazy ..... Oh I forgot about the smacking the big Spring salmon on the head with a stick....never could figure that out !!
I'd feel like a fool bonking a salmon on the head .... snapping its neck kills it bang-o and it also bleeds out real nice, dead in two seconds.
I haven't heard any complaints of fish flapping in the bottom of the boat as being cruel. Probably because they are not vocal.
Surrey Boy having killing baby seals in your title might not be a good idea but its up to you... Im in no way telling you what to do or how to make your post. Just sounds so anti Im tired of hearing it from anti's.
As others mentioned the baby white seals are not killed thats just pics the anti's like to use .....
- Hope you get some hides and meat its as simple as knowing a newfie fisherman.
We should all be helping the seal hunt and promoting the use of their hides etc. Its good a few here voice their opinions.

[Johnnybear]

Problem there Kyle is shots going everwhere on the ice flows and people getting killed.
I think there is a product out there that will work now that people are becoming more concerned.
However not much diff seeing a seal kicking and balling then seeing a downed deer doing the shaking and balling ... or a grouse flapping all over the road. .... a deer taking 15 minutes to die after being shot with an arrow.... A chicken or a turkey hanging upside down in shackles in a kill house flapping like crazy ..... Oh I forgot about the smacking the big Spring salmon on the head with a stick....never could figure that out !!
I'd feel like a fool bonking a salmon on the head .... snapping its neck kills it bang-o and it also bleeds out real nice, dead in two seconds.
I haven't heard any complaints of fish flapping in the bottom of the boat as being cruel. Probably because they are not vocal.
Surrey Boy having killing baby seals in your title might not be a good idea but its up to you... Im in no way telling you what to do or how to make your post. Just sounds so anti Im tired of hearing it from anti's.
As others mentioned the baby white seals are not killed thats just pics the anti's like to use .....
- Hope you get some hides and meat its as simple as knowing a newfie fisherman.
We should all be helping the seal hunt and promoting the use of their hides etc. Its good a few here voice their opinions.

Good post wildprotien. I have no problem with wacking anything on the head as it usually kills it pretty darn quick if done right. I like your suggestion of not using a firearm as the hazard to the other hunters is too high. Very common sense IMO.

Your comment about hitting fish on the head intrigued me however. The pratice has been done for lord knows how long. I agree with trout and similar sized fish with the sticking your thumb down the throat and reefing back and snapping the neck. This is how I do it as well for those types of fish. It is not as easy of a feat with a large salmon ( I would love to see photo's or video of you performing this task on lets say a 30 lber). I usually do the obvious and smack them once in a well placed shot on the top of the head to "stun/kill" them. It is much easier to handle the fish once they are stunned or killed. I usually slit the gills after this and put them in the drainage channel at the aft of the boat to bleed out before putting them immediately on ice.

To the OP. If I had the opportunity to hunt seals I would want to do it the traditional way and spot and stock them and club them to instant death (which would happen and has happened since the inception of the technique) with a tradional weapon. I would harvest the furs, utilize the meat and make the best out of the whole experience.

This harvest has been going on for along time and is a Canadian tradition. We should cherish it. I have zero problem with it or the ways to achieve it.

[wildprotien]

Johnnybear good post.
Not sure the biggest salmon I ever cracked like that I guess 25 lbs sorry no video hahahah.
I haven't tried it on a 50 lber haha but would like to try never caught one that big.
I do it like you I guess and snap the head down on one side of my knee and hold the other side... works pretty slick .... might make a mess in a boat the blood gushes out pretty good .... kind of sprays all over the place.
You should go out on a seal boat for a few days it would be an adventure.

[ratherbefishin]

I agree clubbing is probably the most humane way to kill a seal-and with less noise and trauma than shooting them.The ONLY issue is the media,who likes to say ''baby''seals are being ''skinned alive''-which no one would do anyway because its far easier to kill a dead animal than a live one-yet this is what uninformed and naive people believe[my sister being one of them]The object-to get donation dollars for their ''industry''.''Baby'' lambs are NO diferent than ''baby'' seals ,they are just as ''cute'' so why don't the anti seal hunt people target them?Why don't we see people lined up with placards ''canada's shame'' over spring lamb?...

[Surrey Boy]

The provocateur in me had to say it that way . . . Maybe I ought to think of the reputation of the site before I get a kick out of Brigitte Bardot thinking people liked her for her opinions.

[Fred H]

Seal skull is really thin, the only reason you see multiple blows on the internet is to show the antis that the seal is really dead. There is way more risks of injuring a seal with a gun, the brain being a small target. There is a moratorium on recreative seal hunting in Quebec. :icon_frow

[steelheadSABO]

woohoo break out the baseball bats with the spikes in it its seal huntin time

[Surrey Boy]

woohoo break out the baseball bats with the spikes in it its seal huntin time

So I should've told the cop that it was for hunting seals and he was destroying my livelihood when he took it away?

[ChilliwackWinchester]

So I should've told the cop that it was for hunting seals and he was destroying my livelihood when he took it away?

Haha... That's so Surrey!

[deerstocker]

i want to go the way i look at it is line my 6 up -- wheres the club --- hunting is hunting if its legal --- we r not to judge the method ------- happy hunting

[sparkes3]

im heading back to newfoundland for the month of april will see what i can dig up for you

[Surrey Boy]

That would be great! Those guys are some of the few Canadians make me proud to be a Canadian too. No offense if some Toronto academic is reading this.

[quackquackbang]

There's know shortage of seals here in Newfoundland that's for sure. I was out in boat the other day and we seen a shit load(most i have ever seen). I say let everyone come and blast away!!!!!:twisted::twisted::twisted::twisted:

[dutchie]

Umm... How do you kill a fish without giving it a good "Thwack" over the head?

That is all I was ever taught when I was brought up, and still all I really know... other then just letting it die because of being out of the water.

Dutchie

[sparkes3]

hey quackquackbang where do i meet you for the seal slaughter

[Surrey Boy]

Hey sparkes3, what have you found out? It might be worth the drive, and maybe then I can drive all the way back through Quebec and Ontario with a legally hunted dead seal strapped to the top of my Ford.

[quackquackbang]

hey quackquackbang where do i meet you for the seal slaughter

Myself and my brother are doin this course now only 5 bucks, then we can harvest 6 each a year(We are not commercial fisherman) I know its not many but thats 6 less that we have to worrie about and alot of people here love seal so its not hard to get rid of. I think its only for residents though but when I go and do it I will be sure to ask if non residents can come shoot them to!!!:twisted:

[wolverine]

The West Coast needs a legit seal hunt or cull if you wish to start thinning them out. They eat salmon fry like popcorn and make a hell of a mess out of everything. I'm just not in favor of the clubbing aspect of dispatching them. There are better ways. To me, clubbing something to death is right up there with drowning or setting something on fire to kill it. It's got to be bad ju ju too.

[sparkes3]

surreyboy i got some flippers last night they have 948 pelts on board too but i have not found any tanned pelts yet but still looking i got 10 days left

[Surrey Boy]

surreyboy i got some flippers last night they have 948 pelts on board too but i have not found any tanned pelts yet but still looking i got 10 days left

I ought to have checked this thread sooner! Can I get some flippers off you? Anything? Even a skull?

[sparkes3]

that was when i was home in april.back in b.c now.

[huntwriter]

I'm not cool with the whole clubbing part,I would love the opportunity to hunt them with a rifle, I have been brought up to believe in giving the animals I kill a quick death ,...

Actually a proper applied hit on the head with a club is as deadly and painless, if not more so, then a rifle shot through the lungs of a deer. My father, a slaughterhouse - politically correct, a protein harvesting facility - owner, regularly killed large bulls with a hit to the forehead using a sledgehammer. The reason he did this is because the captive bolt could not penetrate the skull of a large bull with a single blow. Therefore the sledgehammer treatment was humane but looked horrible to the onlooker.

Most seals are dead by the first blow, or unconscious. Further blows are applied to smash the brain, which prevents involuntary reflex movement of the body that could damage the fur. Of course then there is the fact that seal hunters, just like other hunters, have a code of ethics and the majority obeys that code just as most of us do.

While I agree that watching an animal being clubbed can evoke emotions, it does every time I see it or watched my father smacking a bull on the head with a sledgehammer, it is totally painless and dead is instant.

[Surrey Boy]

that was when i was home in april.back in b.c now.

Yes, and I'm sorry I didn't pay attention then. Thanks anyway. Congratulations on your flippers, and the whole trip, actually.

[Tanya]

Was snow goose hunting in Manitoba last fall with a couple of Newfie outport fishermen. We talked about sealing as one of them had his commercial license for that. They no longer bludgeon them, have to shoot them - positive he said it was a .22.

[Stéphane]

Before anyone draw the wrong conclusion with what I'm about to write, lets make this one thing clear - I have nothing against hunting sea mammals. Hunters, people feeding their family, it's all good. What I don't care for, is the systematic culling of animals for the wrong reasons - either political reasons or greed.

Surrey Boy, who wants to hunt himself some seals, is perfectly fine. Killing 300 000 of them because of over fishing is a different story. Skinning seals while they are still alive isn't a myth . . . the fishermen themselves admit to it (in the 80's, they claimed that 40% of them were skinned while their heart was still beating - Mowat, Farley. Sea of Slaughter,1984. I think it comes from the sheer number of them and at one point, you just want to get on with it, become desensitized and instead of making sure the animal is fully dead. . . so long as it doesn't move. The seals are perceived as pest over there.
The DFO has been feeding lies to the population of Canada saying that seals eat all the fish. Yet, there were more fish at the beginning of the 20th century than there is now. What is worth noting is the number of seals far exceeded the numbers we have had ever since. However, the fishing methods have changed dramatically. They are much more efficient. But the MLAs, pressured by the the voters of the Atlantic provinces, prescribe the DFO with the "right" lines to feed us. Uhmm, the government lying to us? Or bending the truth?

I think as a hunter, preserving a species is just as important, so my kids can enjoy looking at them, or if they choose, hunt them.

Rants off.

SG

[sparkes3]

yes a 22 rim fire will work but most guys use 223 ,22-250,243.

[Surrey Boy]

yes a 22 rim fire will work but most guys use 223 ,22-250,243.

Why not shotguns? Wouldnt a high-velocity bullet be somewhat dangerous when fired at water or ice?

[MooseWhacker]

From what I read the most efficent way to kill anything is a small cal. bullet to the back of the head.Just enough velocity to penatrate the skull and bounce around inside.

[Ronforca]

This is not Seals but when I was younger I used to trap Muskrats and the way to kill them was with a good smack on the nose with a club.Killed them as quick as anything.Seemed very humane to me after I killed a few.It is seeing it done that people do not like because they do not know how quick it is.In other words it looks pretty bad.

[sparkes3]

we used to be able to use shot guns with slugs not shot i dont know if you can still use a slug or not

[BradB]

Before anyone draw the wrong conclusion with what I'm about to write, lets make this one thing clear - I have nothing against hunting sea mammals. Hunters, people feeding their family, it's all good. What I don't care for, is the systematic culling of animals for the wrong reasons - either political reasons or greed.

Surrey Boy, who wants to hunt himself some seals, is perfectly fine. Killing 300 000 of them because of over fishing is a different story. Skinning seals while they are still alive isn't a myth . . . the fishermen themselves admit to it (in the 80's, they claimed that 40% of them were skinned while their heart was still beating - Mowat, Farley. Sea of Slaughter,1984. I think it comes from the sheer number of them and at one point, you just want to get on with it, become desensitized and instead of making sure the animal is fully dead. . . so long as it doesn't move. The seals are perceived as pest over there.
The DFO has been feeding lies to the population of Canada saying that seals eat all the fish. Yet, there were more fish at the beginning of the 20th century than there is now. What is worth noting is the number of seals far exceeded the numbers we have had ever since. However, the fishing methods have changed dramatically. They are much more efficient. But the MLAs, pressured by the the voters of the Atlantic provinces, prescribe the DFO with the "right" lines to feed us. Uhmm, the government lying to us? Or bending the truth?

I think as a hunter, preserving a species is just as important, so my kids can enjoy looking at them, or if they choose, hunt them.

Rants off.

SG

First problem, you're quoting Farley Mowat and I've found his version of the facts to be highly suspect at times.
While I won't deny such barbaric things happened in the past, the industry is much better regulated and under a media microscope at pretty well all times so things like this don't happen.
Another myth is that seals are killed to protect cod. Yes, various groups have tried to pin the collapse of the cod on seals, mainly the MHA's who had to take the heat from having to announce the cod collapse, but the truth of mismanagement issues has since been accepted by the majority of people. The reality is that seals and seal by-products are used all over the world for fur, leather, pharmaceuticals and food and they add alot of income into the local economy.
Lastly, the seal herds off the East coast are in no way in danger of collapse from over hunting. This population is huge and the numbers are also highly regulated. Given the public scrutiny received by this hunt, you can see why the government would want to keep everything on the up and up.
I'm not a believer in government knows best but on this issue I really think they are actually doing the right things.
FYI, .223's are the gun of choice. Alot more seals die to bullets than hackapicks now.