Shame the icebreaker was around. Leave 'em trapped in the ice, and wait 'til the polar bears arrive. Interesting to see if any of the bar-stewards are brave enough to try to club a fully-grown hungry polar bear...

I'd echo Ted's sentiments, only without the Polar Bears. Just leave them to start clubbing each other over the head when they get REALLY hungry. Scumbags.

"I've never, ever experienced nothing like this."

Surely this sentence is reason enough to leave that guy stranded. Just consider it a cull on idiots.

irony is fantastic sometimes :o)

(isn't global warming supposed to decreasing the ice not encircling Canadian clubers?)

Oh dear, how sad, never mind :D

I can't see the issue with bashing seals on the head, it's an instant kill. even if you have a second whack 'cos you missed the first time how is this any worse than hanging a live chicken upside down and whizzing it round on a roof-top conveyor, whre it may or may not be successfully stunned before having its head buzzed off (if they wriggle they miss the electrified pond)? Or shooting a cow in the head with the bolt or bashing it on the head with a big hammer? Several million of them a year. Or, in fact, being crunched up arse first by a killer whale as its guts squirt out of its mouth and nose.

If seals tasted yummy there'd be no issue.

Well Chris Collins, what a brilliantly stupid comments you felt compelled to leave here. In case you haven't noticed, this article was about the sealer being trapped on the ice during the seal hunt. So, when people appropriately respond to the topic at hand, you take that as to mean that they approve of the issues you mentioned. Real brainer there aren't ya. I guess next time a person leaves a comment, they'll be required to list everything they have a problem with or else, their opinions are worthless. Dumbass.

I had some yesterday and it was delicious. No kidding.

First of all Seals do taste yummy. The flippers can be made into a very nice meat pie.

Secondly one of the misconceptions is that Seal Hunters still club seals. The Gaft was banned many years ago, despite independent observers concluding it was the most humane method of killing. These days all kills must be done with a high powered rifle.

Finally all those images you see of pretty baby seals being taken... well again the hunting of whitecoat pups has been banned for years.

Read http://www.thesealfishery.com/misconceptions2.php for more.

IT WAS YOOOOOOOOOOOOU!

<hail of machine gun fire>

Of course seal hunters still club seals. The use of the hakapik, a club with a sharp hook on the end, has not been banned and many hunters use them. At least try to look up some basic facts before commenting. It's not hard- try Google if you get stuck.

Although the clubbing of whitecoat pups has been banned, hunters are allowed to club seals as soon as they start molting - about 12-15 days after birth. Although the seals may not be completely white, most are still very young pups. Here's a link to counter the earlier one:

http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/protect_seals/about_the_canadian_seal_hunt/

It's from the Humane Society so it has an animal rights perspective.

The seal hunters took a chance. Let 'em freeze.

The seals will continue to breed, so there'll be a fresh crop next year.

I don't know what you're all getting so worked up about, they are just animals like us... Animals have been killing animals since animals have been around, so to speak, and in much less 'humane' ways than a club to the head!

If you feel that strongly about these things, why not put the proverbial pounds where the pouters are and actually go out there and protect the seals from the folks with rifles and clubs?

;-)

Whilst I appreciate the who argument for "we are keeping alive the traditions of our forefathers" surely one of the traditions would be quite a lot of them dying in the process.

So why not bring these ancient traditions to a much wider audience so we can all appreciate them? How about a reality TV show charting the progress of the ice locked hunters - over a period of days we could watch their slow demise, maybe vote in the polar bears, etc.

Of course a good chunk of the money raised would be donated to the local communities for thier betterment; they could use the cash for some useful civic building - a MacDonalds for example!!!!!!!

Ohhh that could lead to a sponsership deal....

Your last statement is incorrect... the vast majority (over 95%) of seals are harvested using rifles. The "clubbing" of seals is not even accurate, as the tool, when used is not a blunt instrument.

And, for the record - baby seals are NOT killing in this hunt, and have not been killed in the hunt for about 20 years! That doesn't play well for the anti-hunting lobby, though, so the prevalent image of seals in the media is a cute, small white baby seal.

Well David, thank you for ill-informed input but to a vast majority of the world, a "being" is considered a "baby" at the age of 12 to 14 days. Especially when the "being" is in the stages of learning how to swim and haven't had a solid meal in their life.

So yes, while whitecoats were banned from being killed in the 80's, once the baby start to molt their white fur, they are legal to kill which occurs around 12-14 days.

Like other people previously said............a baby.

Ok Sandra, lets talk about babies for a minute. You are right, the seals lose their white coat after only a 2 or 3 weeks (rareless less than 2 weeks). They are also no longer suckling on their mother... they are weaned and self-sufficient - something which I would not describe as a baby.

A seal is not a human. They are not "babies" they are pups. Humanizing them does not help the the fact that a 3 week old seal is not longer mother-dependant and can survive on its own.

Now lets talk about what is best for the overall seal population. This "hunt" is actually a cull of the herd. The size of the harp seal herd off of the north-east coast of Canada is over-sized and is being managed in the same way that many populations of animals are managed.

Did you know that killing younger seals is actually better for the overall herd health than killing old seals? A seal will take 4 years to mature and become able to reproduce. If the sealers were forced to kill only older animals, the seal herd would be in much more danger of a dramatic drop in numbers as a result. This is a fact that is not debatable, it is the science of population control applied without some misguided humanization of the animals.

Anyway just go eat some 6 week old chicken for your dinner... yeah they are 6 weeks old when they are harvested... imagine that... YOU would even call them babies!