Animal rights activists brace for a showdown with the government over a practice of seal hunting as they regard it as inhumane. Moses Maurihungirire, director of resource management at the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, informed that this year season, from July 1 to Nov. 15, seal hunters will be allowed kill 6,000 adult males and 80,000 pups, a quota that remains the same as last year.
Maurihungirire also told that the seal population is healthy and not at risk of extinction. But the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists seals as endangered. According to the government the seal hunt protects its fish stocks because seals consume 900,000 tons of fish a year, which is more than a third of the fishing industry’s catch. Besides, the hunt of seal also provides revenue from skins, fur and meat, and creates 149 jobs.
The animal rights activists from Seal Alert South Africa said that the country’s seal population is no longer sustainable. Francois Hugo, of Seal Alert, told that a colony on Cape Cross island was wiped out during last year’s hunting season. He added that Namibia’s commercial sealing industry is 93 percent seal pup based. He also said that the government is targeting nursing pups, rather than adults that eat fish.
