Deaths of three Canadian seal hunters draws focus from saving seals to hunter safety

2008-03-31 03:39:00 -

ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE, Quebec (AP) - Canada's seal hunt has been dominated for years by the bitter debate over saving seals, but the deaths of three hunters in the icy North Atlantic on Saturday is drawing attention to the safety of seal hunters.
Three hunters died in a tragic accident in which L'Acadien II, a 40-foot (12-meter) fishing boat based in Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, capsized while being towed behind an icebreaker. Of the six crew members on board, only two were pulled alive from the waters of the Cabot Strait. The three bodies of the captain of L'Acadien II, Bruno Bourque, and sealers Gilles Leblanc and Marc-Andre Deraspe were recovered, while another sealer remained missing and is feared dead. The coast guard ended the active search for the missing man, Carl Aucoin, on Sunday evening.
Bruno-Pierre Bourque, whose father died in Saturday's accident, but who survived it himself, said a combination of speed and inattention by the coast guard crew caused the fishing boat to flip over. Bourque said he was at the helm of the rudderless trawler.
«A big piece of ice was suddenly in front of us, we couldn't avoid it. We tried what we could but without a rudder there wasn't much we could do,» Bourque told Radio-Canada's all-news channel RDI.
Federal officials holding a news conference Saturday in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, said they could not comment on the speed of the vessel.
Mike Voigt, the Canadian Coast Guard's superintendent of search and rescue, said the towing procedure was common and it was up to the crew of the disabled vessel to determine whether they should stay aboard.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
Other ships among the 16 that left for the seal hunt last week were expected to return later Sunday. They called off the hunt partly out of solidarity for the dead and missing.
There is widespread concern about the record amounts of ice near the seal hunting grounds, which can exert enough pressure on a boat's hull to cause it to sink. The L'Acadien II navigating the icy conditions was an aluminum vessel.
Seven crew members of another seal hunting boat lost their vessel to such factors Saturday, but they managed to jump to a nearby ice floe and were later rescued by helicopter.
Seal hunters are holding out hope they will be able to salvage some of their season with conditions expected to improve this week.
A second hunt opened Sunday in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Phil Jenkins of the federal Fisheries Department said about eight vessels were out and having to contend with unusually thick ice. Only about 1,000 seals had been taken by Sunday morning, he said.
Hunters are allowed to take up to 275,000 animals this season. One-third of that total can be taken in the Gulf, while the remainder will be killed off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in April.
Veteran sealer Mark Small of Wild Cove, Newfoundland, said most sealers have had close calls during the annual hunt, a fixture of Atlantic coastal life for more than 200 years. There have been numerous tragedies over the years, including the exposure deaths of 78 sealers from the vessel S.S. Newfoundland who died during a savage blizzard in 1914.
«It's a way of life. There's a lot of risk involved whether you're out on the ice or out fishing in the summer,» said Small.
He said the fishing boats that go out these days are usually strengthened for ice conditions. However, many of the small boats that hunt in the Gulf are made of wood.
Seal hunt opponents seized the weekend tragedy as another reason for the Canadian government to end the seal hunt.
«We have said for a number of years that the seals aren't the only victims of the commercial seal hunt,» said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States. «People have lost their lives this year. It's an absolute tragedy and it's one that could have been avoided if the federal government had stepped in with a sealing industry buy-out package as we have been asking them to do for years.
Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said the Canadian government puts a great deal of effort into making sure hunt opponents abide by exacting standards but the government has not done as much to make sure the hunters are safe.
«It seems if you're a conservation vessel they pull out all the stops to make sure every 't' is crossed and every 'i' dotted on all the regulations,» Watson said in an interview from Los Angeles. «But they seem to waive everything when it comes to the hunters.
The Sea Shepherd ship, Farley Mowat, which is currently making its way through the ice of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was directed by Transport Canada not to enter Canadian waters until it complies with international marine safety conventions. The Farley Mowat is a large, ice-class vessel with a steel hull.
«I find it strange the (Transportation) minister is talking about how unsafe my vessel is in the ice, but he's allowing these wooden boats to go out,» Watson said.
Fishermen sell seal pelts mostly to the fashion industry in Norway, Russia and China, as well as blubber for oil, earning about $78 (¤49) for each seal. The 2006 hunt brought in about $25 million (¤16 million).
The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972.