As reported earlier , the European Union has decided to ban the import of seal skin and other seal products hailing from commercial seal hunting.

This has upset Canadian seal hunters since Italy and Denmark, both members of the European Union, are two major importers of seal products. Italy imports most of their seal skins from Russia, but Denmark has always been an important trade partner for North American seal hunters, partly due to Denmark’s traditional connection to Greenland.

According to a statement from Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day, the federal government is now getting ready to move in with an appeal against the ban, which they see as a clear breach of WTO regulation.

“We’ll go to the WTO because it’s clear in WTO regulations that if one country wants to ban the products of another, it has to have clear scientific, medically acceptable reasons for doing so, and this EU ban is not based on hard science,” Day said.

The Canadin government believes that Canada deserves an exemption from the import ban since it follows internationally accepted guidelines regarding seal hunting, e.g. by prohibiting the clubbing of baby seals while they still have their white coats.

Day claims that the European ban is based on “people’s feelings” rather than hard facts, and says that the trade action will proceed unless the European Union Parliament exempts Canada and other countries that he said practise humane and sustainable seal hunting. According to Day, seal hunt proponents erroneously portray seal hunting as it was 40 years ago.

The suggested seal import ban must still be approved by individual European governments before becoming law but can, if passed, come into effect as early as next year. If the is approved, it will cause an annual 2 million USD loss for the Canadian industry.

Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail Shea agrees supports the government’s planned trade action.

“When you live in small coastal communities, sometimes there’s not many opportunities to make some additional money,” she said. “We have a number of families who make up to 35% of their annual income from the seal hunt. So yes, I do think it’s very important.”

As reported earlier, the proposed European seal import ban will contain some exemptions and seal products resulting from hunts traditionally conducted by Inuit and other indigenous communities can still be imported to and marketed in European Union countries even if the ban is approved. Products that result from hunting conducted for the purpose of sustainable management of marine resources on a non-profit basis will also be allowed, and individual travellers will be permitted to bring seal products to the European Union as long as the import is of an occasional nature and consists exclusively of goods for the personal use of the traveller.

Yesterday, the European Parliament voted to ban most seal products from the European market. The legislative resolution was adopted with 550 votes in favour, 49 against and 41 abstentions.

Suggestions from the European Parliament’s will only become law if adopted by the European Council of Ministers, which represents the member states. The legislative report on the seal products ban was agreed with the European Council of Ministers in first-reading.

An exemption is allowed for indigenous communities so seal products resulting from hunts traditionally conducted by Inuit and other indigenous communities can still be imported to and marketed in European Union countries.

“This deal will protect seals from cruelty and protect the Inuit people’s traditional way of life,” said Christel Schaldemose, a Danish Socialist MEP.

Import of seal products will also be permitted where it is of an occasional nature and consists exclusively of goods for the personal use of the traveller or products that result from by-products of hunting conducted for the purpose of sustainable management of marine resources on a non-profit basis.

The legislative report was drafted by UK MEP Diana Wallis of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE). ALDE is the third largest political group in the European Parliament.

No ban on hunting

“Seals are very beautiful marine animals, in fact, I have realized during this process that they have great PR, but to some they are the rats of the sea”, Wallis said in the debate yesterday.

“That is how they are perceived by many fishermen – an adult seal gets through an enormous amount of fish on a daily basis. Therefore, there will remain the need for seals to be hunted to ensure the sustainability of fisheries in some area.“

“But what we have not done here is to regulate hunting,” said Wallis. “If people in any of our

member states wish to hunt, they can still continue to hunt. What they cannot do is take commercial gain from the results of that hunt. But it should be the case that the results of the hunt can be used, and I hope particularly that those parts of seals that can be used by the medical community will be able to be used.”

Today, human heart valves can be replaced with bioprosthetic valves from seals and other marine mammals.

“Great progress has been made in the survival and quality of life of cardiac patients by using the aortic, pulmonary and pericardial tissue of harp seals, the assumption being that they are sustainably hunted or killed and not in a cruel way,” said Irish MEP Avril Doyle of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, EPP-ED. “I would like assurances on ongoing medical research and bioprosthetic use of products from seals in the context of the compromise,” she added.

The patent holder for the valve replacement process, Efstathios Andreas Agathos of Massachusetts, says the needed seal valves can be supplied by “the annual seal harvesting supported by Canadian government for population control.”

Canada will challenge ban at WTO

Canada‘s Trade Minister Stockwell Day said that Canada will challenge the trade ban at the World Trade Organization, unless an exemption is added for any country that has strict guidelines in place for humane and sustainable sealing practices.

“The decision by the European Parliament lacks any basis in facts,” said Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea. “The Canadian seal hunt is guided by rigorous animal welfare principles which are internationally recognized by independent observers. I once again caution my European counterparts about the dangers of pursuing politically motivated bans on other countries’ traditional industries. Our government will stand up for the jobs and communities that depend on the seal hunt.”

The world’s largest seal hunt is conducted every spring off Canada’s Atlantic coast and Denmark, one of the main importers of raw fur sealskins to the European Union, imports seal skins directly from Canada and Greenland. Denmark and Italy are by far the two largest importers of raw fur sealskins for the EU market. Unlike Denmark, Italy imports most skins from Russia, and from the two EU members Finland and Scotland (UK). Greece will also be affected by the trade ban, but not to the same extent as Denmark and Italy since the Greece trade in raw seal skins – predominately from Finland and Scotland – is much smaller.

New laws proposed for managing the seas around Scotland include a year round ban against killing seals. If passed by MSPs, the new laws will make killing or injuring a seal an offence except under licence or for animal welfare concerns.

Licences will be given in certain circumstances, e.g. to prevent serious damage to fisheries. Killing without a licence will only be allowed in certain situations where animal welfare is a consideration, e.g. “mercy killing”.

Current legislation on seal conservation dates back to the 1970s and only makes license a requirement during the breeding season.

The curbs are a part of Scotland’s very first Marine Bill. The proposed laws will cover the Scottish sea from the shoreline to the 12-mile limit and is an attempt to balance competing interests through a legal planning framework.

The Marine Bill is not only focused on wildlife but aims to provide better protection for marine archaeology and wrecks as well. Under the Bill’s wider provisions, marine planning partnerships will be formed with local bodies, and a more straightforward licensing system involving less red tape is planned for areas like renewable energy.

Modern seals, walruses, and sea lions are all descendants of animals that once lived on land but eventually swapped their terrestrial lifestyle for a life in the ocean. Until now, the morphological evidence for this transition from land to water has been weak, but researchers from Canada and the United States have now found a remarkably well preserved skeleton of a newly discovered carnivorous animal: Puijila darwini.

Skeletal illustration of Puijila darwini.
Credit: Mark A. Klingler/Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Seals, walruses and sea lions all have flippers; a type of limb perfectly adapted for swimming and moving around in water. But how could a land living animal develop flippers? The adaptation evolved gradually over a long period of time, as some land living animals adapted semi-aquatic habits. New research now suggests that the genus Puijila is the “missing” evolutionary link between our modern seals, walruses and sea lions and their terrestrial ancestors.

Puijila darwini is described as having fore-limbs comparatively proportionate to modern carnivorous land animals rather than to pinnepeds*, a long tail, and webbed feet.

“The remarkably preserved skeleton of Puijila had heavy limbs, indicative of well developed muscles, and flattened phalanges which suggests that the feet were webbed, but not flippers. This animal was likely adept at both swimming and walking on land. For swimming it paddled with both front and hind limbs. Puijila is the evolutionary evidence we have been lacking for so long,” says Mary Dawson, curator emeritus of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

The Puijila darwini skeleton was found in Nunavut, Canada in the remains of what was once a crater lake on coastal Devon Island. The first pieces of the skeleton were found in 2007, but the important basicranium wasn’t found until researchers paid a new visit to the site in 2008. Without a basicranium it is much more difficult to determine taxonomic relationships.

Based on Paleobotanic fossils, Devon Island had a cool, coastal temperate climate during the Miocene when Puijila darwini roamed the seashore. The conditions were quite similar to modern-day New Jersey and the lakes would freeze during the winter, something which probably prompted Puijila darwini to move over land from the lake to the sea in search of food.

“The find suggests that pinnipeds went through a freshwater phase in their evolution. It also provides us with a glimpse of what pinnipeds looked like before they had flippers,” says Natalia Rybczynski, leader of the field expedition.

The idea that semi-aquatic mammals may have undergone a transition from freshwater to saltwater is not new. In the On the Origin of Species by the Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin writes “A strictly terrestrial animal, by occasionally hunting for food in shallow water, then in streams or lakes, might at last be converted in an animal so thoroughly aquatic as to brace the open ocean.”

The oldest well-preserved pinniped animal belongs to the genus Enaliarctos and was a sea living creature with flippers. This species has been found on North Americas northern Pacific shores which have lead researchers to believe that the evolution of pinniped animals may have taken place mainly around the Arctic. This new finding of Puijila darwini strengthens that notion.

You can find more information about Puijila darwini and the origin of pinnipeds in the April 23 issue of the journal Nature.

http://www.nature.com

http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html

* The pinnipeds are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals. It contains the families Odobenidae (walruses), Otariidae (eared seals, including sea lions and fur seals), and Phocidae (earless seals). The name is derived from the Latin words pinna, which means wing or fin, and ped, which means foot. The pinnipeds are therefore also known as fin-footed mammals.

Tagged Seals are helping Australian scientists learn a great deal more about places, in the deep oceans of Antarctica, where they themselves can not travel. This summer 7 female Weddell Seals were tagged to help researchers gather information on the changes global warming is having on the oceans. The Weddell Seal is a constant inhabitant of the Antarctic, and they are now being used by an international program monitoring deep diving mammals on both the North and South Pole.

The Seals are fitted with a satellite  transmitter that relays data daily back to the researchers.  The data provides depths of the seals dives, the time they spend under water, and where they are going to eat. But, more importantly, the transmitter also relays vital information about the surrounding oceans; such as water temperatures and salinity of the oceans. So far the salinity of the oceans in the arctic have begun to decline, leaving scientists guessing that melting ice due to global warming is to blame.

However, research is done only in winter, and come spring, the seals molt and the tracking devices fall off. Scientist are planning on several more years of this fascinating seal tagging to help better understand the oceans around us.

You can read the entire article on the Weddell Seal Tagging studies here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/29/2229776.htm

picture provided by Creative Commons at:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

 (disclaimer: Creative Commons has no affiliation to the AC or the views or thoughts published in this article.)

In the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA) have decided to investigate if the ribbon seal should be protected by law, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. NOAA will also investigate the situation for three other species of ice seal: the bearded seal, the spotted seal and the ringed seal. The decision is a response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, a San Francisco based environmental group. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the sea ice in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas off Alaska and Russia where the ribbon seals spend the winter season is threatened by global warming.

You can read more about this in the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/27/BAC0VR2CK.DTL

The ribbon seal (Histriophoca fasciata) inhabits the Arctic parts of the Pacific Ocean and almost never come to land; it spends most of its life in the ocean and on sea ice. During winter and early spring, it lives on the pack ice of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas where it molts (sheds) and breed. When the summer comes, the ribbon seals head for the open water and stay there until next winter. Young ribbon seals are hunted for their fur, but efficient hunting is difficult since this species does not live in herds. For most hunters, the herd living Harp seal is a much more convenient target. In 1969, the Soviet Union limited the hunt on Ribbon seals and this has also had a significant positive impact on the populations.