Heavy ice keeps dozens of vessels from seal hunt

Compressed ice prevented scores of sealers in southern Labrador and off Newfoundland's northeast coast from joining the seal hunt on Friday.

The Canadian Coast Guard was using three icebreakers on Friday to assist longliners, some of which were having trouble even leaving port.

"We just can't get into ports at this time because of heavy ice," Capt. Brian Penney told CBC News on Friday morning.

Hours later, Penney said conditions had not changed. The coast guard estimated that as many as 60 longliners had been stuck in ice.

The hunt was scheduled to open on Thursday, but had been delayed because of ice conditions off the Northern Peninsula. Among those affected are sealers from southern Labrador, who have been unable to travel across the Strait of Belle Isle.

Todd Russell, the Liberal MP for Labrador, said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans should have delayed the opening for a longer period of time.

"I tell you, it's been very, very slow very hard on the boats," Russell told CBC News.

"Once you get out there, you have to come back, and there doesn't seem to be any slacking on the ice conditions. It's hell right now."

DFO was expected to close the hunt Friday night, so that pelts could be counted.

In response to ice concerns, DFO said Labrador sealers will be allowed to hunt on Sunday, starting at 6 a.m.

Officials are expected to decide on Saturday when or even if the rest of the hunt will reopen.

The hunt off northeastern Newfoundland at an area that is traditionally called the Front constitutes the largest part of the Canadian seal hunt, with about 70 per cent of the quota of 270,000 seals set aside for this phase.

The Front attracts less attention than the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where hakapiks are commonly used. At the Front, the vast majority of seals are shot by rifle.

The harp seal hunt is an annual magnet for controversy, although this year's hunt brought fewer headlines than in past years. In 2006, the Humane Society of the United States scored a public-relations coup by bringing pop superstar Paul McCartney to Prince Edward Island to observe seal pups in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.