Life and premature death for seals

The 15th November 2008 saw the start of Canada's seal hunting season. In recent years this official sanction which sounds as though it's there so that the Inuit and other indigenous peoples can hunt for their own food has allowed the mass slaughter of seal pups for commercial reasons. The killings are brutal and surely can't be justified as a cull. The slaughterings have been captured for public viewing by Humane Society International (HSI).


On the same day, protestors from HSI demonstrated against the cull outside the Canadian Embassy in Washington. World-famous fashion photographer Nigel Barker was there to speak out against the trade in seal fur. Read more about HSI's protest and its ongoing campaign at http://www.hsicanada.ca/seals/seals-news/2009_hunt_season_begins.html

Far from the screams of seals pups that will echo across the Canadian Arctic next spring, thousands of Atlantic Grey seals come in to breed in south-west Wales. The main pupping season begins in late August, and the seals, who are allowed to breed here in relative peace, have scores of rocky coves and tiny beaches to choose from. They have started to produce their young a month or so earlier than they did a decade ago, and on some of the outlying islands seal births have been recorded much earlier still, between January and April. The 'haul out' is one of our main tourist attractions.

Fearing some dire cause connected with global warming, I wonder why this is, since the grey seals that live close to Britain's North Sea coast on the east side of the country seem to start producing their pups from late September. Like the dolphins, puffins and shearwaters and many other forms of marine life the seals bring masses of visitors to this area but my favourite occupation is looking for seals on a summer's evening. Just walking along the coastal path is enough to banish most cares and spotting seals is a bonus.

As the visitors flock to our coastal paths for a slice of paradise, it is more than ironic to know that a few thousand miles away, far from the world's gaze, men can get away with murdering young animals without a thought for their suffering and for reasons of pure financial gain. In fact it makes me feel quite sick.


Inspired by their versatile shapes (they can be chunky and sylph-like, as slow as slugs and as dashing as dervishes), I make stone carvings and resin casts of seals. Some of them are modelled on pups rescued by the seal hospital in Milford Haven, others by sketches and photographs but the best of my figures come from visions of their lumbering gracefulness and sensual agility.