The 12-metre fishing boat L'Acadien II has capsized while being towed behind an icebreaker, drowning four of the six crew members onboard in the icy waters of Cabot Strait. Nevertheless, Transport Canada has directed Farley Mowat not to enter Canadian waters until it complies with international marine safety conventions.

A large, ice-class vessel with a steel hull, Farley Mowat is a registered yacht and does not have to comply with international shipping regulations. Neither do Newfoundland seal hunters. "I find it strange the minister is talking about how unsafe my vessel is in the ice, but he's allowing these wooden boats to go out," Watson said.

True to his vow, Farley Mowat was on station filming the seal kill when L'Acadien II went down.

Watson has demonstrated against the Canadian seal hunt since the mid-1970s and has been savagely beaten and arrested while taking his Sea Shepherd vessels to disrupt the hunt. Last year over 224,000 seals were killed, 98% of them pups under three months of age.

"The seal hunt is an economic mainstay for numerous rural communities in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the North," maintains Minister Hearn, who represents the people of Newfoundland and Labrador in the Canadian Parliament.

But Watson argues the slaughter must be stopped out of compassion and respect for the animals. He adds, "The threat of diminishing ice coverage due to global warming has not been factored into the decision to set quotas."

The European Food Safety Authority agrees with Watson, concluding that seals should be recognized as sentient marine mammals that can experience pain, distress, fear, and other forms of suffering - not “fish” as these furry marine mammals are classified in Canada.

The EU Food Safety Authority also recommends that seals should be protected from killing and skinning practices that cause them pain, distress, and avoidable suffering.

In findings released last year on the Animal Welfare Aspects of Seal Hunting, the European board found zero scientific evidence supporting Ottawa's claims that its commercial seal hunt is “humane”.

On the contrary, after extensive investigation, the European Food Safety Authority scientists found strong evidence that effective killing does not always occur - and indeed, that during Canada's commercial seal hunt, animals suffer pain and distress. And club-wielding seal killers often do not comply with the Canadian regulations to check shattered seal skulls and test for blinking, pain-filled eyes to make sure the creatures are dead.

"The Canadian government's claim that 98% of the seals are killed humanely in the commercial seal hunt is exposed in the report as being scientifically incorrect," said Sheryl Fink, senior researcher with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, which protests the seal hunt every year and provided video evidence to the EFSA.

"This report reveals the truth about Canada's commercial seal hunt, and destroys one of the greatest myths constantly propagated by the Canadian government," said Fink.

Canada's “fish pelts” are running into roadblocks by more compassionate countries abroad. In 2007, an international groundswell of public opposition to the seal slaughter off Newfoundland saw national bans slapped on seal products in Belgium and the Netherlands. Similar bans intended to shut down markets for seal pelts are also underway in Germany, Italy and Austria.

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