[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 70 (Thursday, May 7, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S5297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    URGING THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA TO END THE COMMERCIAL SEAL HUNT

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 57, S. Res. 84.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 84) urging the Government of Canada 
     to end the commercial seal hunt.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or 
debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 84) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                               S. Res. 84

       Whereas the Government of Canada permits an annual 
     commercial hunt for seals in the waters off the east coast of 
     Canada;
       Whereas an international outcry regarding the plight of the 
     seals hunted in Canada resulted in the 1983 ban by the 
     European Union of whitecoat and blueback seal skins and the 
     subsequent collapse of the commercial seal hunt in Canada;
       Whereas the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 
     1361 et seq.) bars the import into the United States of any 
     seal products;
       Whereas, in recent years, the Minister of Fisheries and 
     Oceans of Canada has authorized historically high quotas for 
     harp seals;
       Whereas more than 1,000,000 seals have been killed during 
     the past 4 years;
       Whereas harp seal pups can legally be hunted in Canada as 
     soon as they have begun to molt their white coats, at 
     approximately 12 days of age;
       Whereas 97 percent of the seals killed are pups between 
     just 12 days and 12 weeks of age;
       Whereas, in 2007, an international panel of experts in 
     veterinary medicine and zoology was invited by the Humane 
     Society of the United States to observe the commercial seal 
     slaughter in Canada;
       Whereas the report by the panel noted that sealers failed 
     to comply with sealing regulations in Canada and that 
     officials of the Government of Canada failed to enforce such 
     regulations;
       Whereas the report also concluded that the killing methods 
     permitted during the commercial seal hunt in Canada are 
     inherently inhumane and should be prohibited;
       Whereas many seals are shot in the course of the hunt and 
     escape beneath the ice where they die slowly and are never 
     recovered;
       Whereas such seals are not properly counted in official 
     kill statistics, increasing the likelihood that the actual 
     kill level is far higher than the level that is reported;
       Whereas the few thousand fishermen who participate in the 
     commercial seal hunt in Canada earn, on average, only a tiny 
     fraction of their annual income from killing seals;
       Whereas members of the fishing and sealing industries in 
     Canada continue to justify the seal hunt on the grounds that 
     the seals in the Northwest Atlantic are preventing the 
     recovery of cod stocks, despite the lack of any credible 
     scientific evidence to support this claim;
       Whereas the consensus in the international scientific 
     community is that culling seals will not assist in the 
     recovery of fish stocks and that seals are a vital part of 
     the fragile marine ecosystem of the Northwest Atlantic;
       Whereas polling consistently shows that the overwhelming 
     majority of people in Canada oppose the commercial seal hunt;
       Whereas the vast majority of seal products are exported 
     from Canada, and the sealing industry relies on international 
     markets for its products;
       Whereas 10 countries have prohibited trade in seal products 
     in recent years, and the European Union is now considering a 
     prohibition on trade in seal products; and
       Whereas the persistence of this cruel and needless 
     commercial hunt is inconsistent with the well-earned 
     international reputation of Canada: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) urges the Government of Canada to prohibit the 
     commercial hunting of seals; and
       (2) strongly supports an unconditional prohibition by the 
     European Union on trade in seal products.

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