Locations and Quota
The hunt in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence started on Friday March 28, 2008. A handful of sealing vessels set out before dawn from the Magdalen Islands. In the first hour of the hunt, only 15 seals were killed. The ice had made it hard for the 16 vessels, carrying roughly 100 hunters, to get near the seals. The majority of the hunters for these first days of the hunt, are from the Magdalen Islands. The average seal hunt brings in about $1 million annually to the Magdalen Islands. Per March 30, about 1000 had been killed. On March 30, the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, opened for the people from New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Per April 18, Sealers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence had taken about half of their total allowable catch (TAC) of 51,500 seals.
The biggest part of the 2008 Canadian seal hunt takes place off Newfoundland and Labrador, known as the Front. The hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the front officially began on April 11 and 12 respectively. Official opening times were to be released on April 7. Also the license conditions were to be available on April 7. According to Fisheries Department spokesman Larry Yetman, up to 120 larger boats were heading to the Front on April 12.
Per April 18, sealers on the Front had taken 56% of a total 194,000 seals allowed to be taken in the area. Per April 18, longliners on the Front had taken ca 79% of their TAC of 112,000 seals. Small boats on the Front had taken 27% of their TAC of 71,000 seals.
The seal hunt for Longliners on the Front, closed on April 19, 2008. They were at the time the only groups of hunters close to catching their quota.
Read more about this topic: 2008 Canadian Commercial Seal Hunt
Famous quotes containing the word quota:
“Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,—the union between themselves and the State,—and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the State?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)