Those blood-thirsty imperialistic Canucks

For shame:

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada's commercial seal hunt kicked off Monday with the aim of harvesting 270,000 harp seals, but only a few boats left port in search of prey, officials said.

The hunt "opened today" in traditional seal breeding grounds in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, fisheries department spokesman Phil Jenkins told AFP.

"To our knowledge, there are a couple of vessels out there. But we have not yet heard of any sealing activity," he said, noting that "seals are scarce" there this season because of poor ice conditions.

Up to 20 percent of the Atlantic herd usually nests on thick ice floes in the southern Gulf, but this year authorities and animal rights groups found only slush and ice fragments too small to support a newborn pup.

Ice floes in the northern Gulf and around Newfoundland province, where hunting can begin in April 4, remain in good condition.

In the past three years, one million harp seals have been killed in the commercial hunt in eastern Canada.

Demonstrators in Europe and Canada have denounced the "cruelty" of seal hunting.

But Ottawa maintains the hunt poses no threat to the seal population, which has ballooned over the past three decades to almost 5.5 million.

There must be a way to blame George Dubya for this somehow.