In its Recommendation 1776 (2006) of 17 November 2006 on seal hunting, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recommended inviting the Member States of the Council of Europe practising seal hunting to ban all cruel hunting methods which do not guarantee the instantaneous death, without suffering, of the animals, to prohibit the stunning of animals with instruments such as hakapiks, bludgeons and guns, and to promote initiatives aimed at prohibiting trade in seal products.

5. If there is evidence that a seal hunt is conducted primarily for commercial reasons, the Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 4a in order to prohibit the placing on the market or limit the quantity that may be placed on the market of seal products resulting from the hunt concerned.

Although it might be possible to kill and skin seals in such a way as to avoid unnecessary pain, distress, fear or other forms of suffering, given the conditions in which seal hunting occurs, consistent verification and control of hunters’ compliance with animal welfare requirements is not feasible in practice or, at least, is very difficult to achieve in an effective way, as concluded by the European Food Safety Authority on 6 December 2007.

In March 1988, the Commission submitted a communication to the Council with the final conclusion that it would be obviously inappropriate to revoke the Directive and that the situation had to be reviewed in the light of developments by mid-1989, i.e. before the expiry of the Directive on 1 October 1989 (*) COM(89) 112 It should be recalled, in this context, that the Canadian Goverment will no longer permit large vessels to be used for hunting seals in Canadian waters and will ban all commercial hunting of whitecoats and bluebacks.

That starting with the 2013 season and for a period of four years, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans implement and manage a grey seal targeted removal program in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence to reduce the level of the herd by 70,000 animals; and, that this program, based on the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council’s report entitled “Towards Recovered and Sustainable Groundfish Fisheries in Eastern Canada”, work in conjunction with continuing research and evaluation which should lead to a long term sustainable management plan of grey seals in Atlantic Canada and Quebec; That research protocols to be performed during the rem ...[+++]oval of grey seals be established to test the hypothesis that predation is the major factor preventing recovery of groundfish stocks in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as to better understand and monitor the effects of the target removal; and, That Department of Fisheries and Oceans officials appear before the Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans at the earliest opportunity after the first harvesting season to report on the progress made with the grey seal targeted removal program.

A Canadian Advisory Committee on Seals and Sealing has submitted evidence to the Royal Commission which suggests that the wisest course for the Canadian government might be to declare a moratorium on all seal killing.