92000E1307

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1307/00

by Hanja Maij-Weggen (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(27 April 2000)

Subject: Slaughter of seals

Is the Commission aware that this year Canada has given authorisation for the killing of 275 000 harp seals and 10 000 hooded seals?

Is the Commission aware that 22 Canadian scientists have seriously advised the Canadian government against allowing this slaughter of marine mammals, the largest in the world, to take place?

Is the Commission aware that as a result of the premature melting of ice in Eastern Canada many pups were not born or suckled on time with the result that the young seal population is much smaller than expected?

Is the Commission aware that because of the premature melting of the ice many hunters shot young seals from their boats, resulting in many seals drowning so that the number of 275 000 dead seals is much greater than permitted?

What can the Commission do to prevent slaughter on this scale next year?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behaf of the Commission

(15 June 2000)

As stated in the Commission's reply to Written Question P-0395/00 by Mrs Corbey(1), Canadian catch quotas for harp and hooded seals have remained unchanged since 1996.

Conclusions of a national marine mammal review committee meeting in Ottawa on April 11-12/2000, on the stock status of the harp seal stated that the harp seal population has been stable since 1996 at the highest level since estimates have been available (1960), the population estimate for 2000 is 5,2 million seals (there is a 95 % chance that it is in the range of 4,0 to 6,4 million) and that aerial surveys results provide an estimate of total pup production for harp seals in the Northwest Atlantic in 1999 of approximately 1 million pups (range 200 000 to 1 200 000). Pup production has been increasingly steady since the early 1980s.

Furthermore the Commission noted that the Ministry of fisheries and oceans has announced the formation of an independent panel of scientists to evaluate the current state of scientific knowledge of the seal population in Atlantic Canada and to provide advice on a long-term strategy for its management.

Although the facts mentioned by the Honourable Member concerning this year's ice conditions are regrettable indeed, it does not appear that they pose a conservation threat to the species. Consequently the Commission considers that, apart from a strict implementation of the Council Directive 83/129/EEC of 28 March 1983 concerning the importation into Member States of skins of certain seal pups and products derived therefrom(2), there is no scope for Community involvement in this matter.

(1) OJ C 330 E, 21.11.2000, p. 150.

(2) OJ L 91, 9.4.1983.