The largest marine mammal hunt in the world began on Friday 28 March in Canada, with seals being killed for their precious pelts and oil. The International Fund for Animal Welfare has been observing the hunt from the air to check adherence to anti-cruelty regulations. Already there’s been controversy on both sides, with hunters rushing to stack up their kills and thus bypassing necessary death checks before impaling the seals with hooked hakapiks and dragging them across the ice. In an unlikely twist there has also been human loss of life, with three hunters dead and another missing after their boat was overturned (no, not by seals).

"We witnessed today a classic example of the cruelty associated with this hunt. We filmed as a sealer struck a seal with a hakapik before it slipped into the water. The sealer tried to pull the seal out by the hind flippers but it slipped underwater anyway," said Cheryl Jacobson, hunt observer with IFAW. "This wounded seal will most likely die underwater and unbelievably, that kill won't even be counted in the official catch number."

"We've just filmed four seals being killed and not a single one was bled out before moving it," said Sheryl Fink, hunt observer and senior researcher with IFAW. "If the DFO is serious about the new condition of license I expect to see them take action on this."

"Based on what we've seen today, it's 'business as usual' here in Canada," added Fink. "The rush to club as many seals as possible in a short period of time, combined with the slippery ice conditions means that once again, animal welfare takes a back seat to profit."

The 2008 Canadian Commercial Seal Hunt runs through April. For more images and news as it develops, visit www.ifaw.org

Photography courtesy of IFAW/S.Cook