phone: 709 579 1205
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If you have any questions or
comments, please write to: "T.N.G." Box 625 Station C, St. John's Newfoundland
CANADA A1C 5K8
phone: 709 579 1205 |
See A Swilers History for a history of the Newfoundland Seal Fishery.
The harp seal stocks off Newfoundland are growing. It has risen to 4.7 million, doubling the stock size in less than 15 years. Research carried out by the North West Atlantic Fisheries Centre in St. Johns, Newfoundland, shows that in 1994, this seal stock consumed 140 000 tons of cod off Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is more than 1 billion cod specimens, even though cod only comprises a mere 3-5% of the harp seal diet. Also hooded seals and grey seals help themselves to the cod. These seal stocks are smaller, but they tend to appreciate cod more than the harp seals.
Harp seals are not to blame for the collapse of groundfish stocks in the Newfoundland area. This responsibility must be shared between scientific advisers and the authorities in Canada and the European Union who have allowed blatent and harmful overfishing by draggers.
The Northwest Atlantic Harp Seal Stock
Harp seal stock 1995 estimate: 4,7 million specimens
The Harp Seal Stock consumes per annum an estimated 88 000 tonnes of cod
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (5,6 percent of their diet)
54 000 tonnes of cod
off Newfoundland (3 percent of their diet)
a total of more than
1 billion cod specimens.
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| A Harp seal swims in the ocean.
Photo by H. Pinsent. 2000. |
For more information on the seal fishery press here
See A
Swilers History for a history of the Newfoundland Seal Fishery.
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