Sealing 2008
A season of tragedy and the dark, sinister side of the protest movement

By Jim Wellman

While sealers were still gearing up for Canada's largest seal hunt on the east coast, the gulf seal harvest was making headline news at least once a day - sometimes more.

The most riveting incident ended in tragedy but details surrounding the event captivated sealers, fishermen and all marine people in Atlantic Canada for weeks.

The Canadian Coast Guard found itself at the centre of a federal investigation after what would normally have been a routine towing of a disabled sealing vessel that ended in tragedy on March 29. Six seal hunters wound up in the icy waters off Cape Breton. Four men died. Three bodies were recovered but one is missing. Two of the sealers survived.

Legislating Safety

ByJim Wellman

If only it was that easy.

If only we could pass a law and that would be it - no more fatalities at sea.

Well, here in the real world, life is not that simple. Sadly, all the legislation in the world, short of banning all shipping, will still not stop accidents at sea.

Fishing is the most dangerous commercial occupation on earth. Accidents are bound to happen but that doesn't mean that we can't prevent some fatalities from occurring.

We can but adding more rules to the list won't solve the whole problem.

In light of the recent tragedy in the 2008 seal harvest when four sealers from the Iles-de-la-Madeleine died while being towed by a Canadian Coast Guard vessel, there will likely be new policies and guidelines implemented to try and prevent such an accident as that ever again. And while new guidelines may help in a specific case like that, there is still a bigger issue in safety at sea that needs to be addressed. Some people refer to it as a safety culture.