I have nothing against Pamela Anderson, to catch a glimpse of whom poor hapless Borat crossed the United States, at great risk of his life; nor against Baywatch, whose David Hasselhoff is something of a minor video celebrity; nor against stripteases, and other embarrassing episodes in which the absence of clothing, with strangers looking on, is arguably regrettable.

But, we might point out that Ms. Anderson's statement to the Canadian ambassador might have been more impressive, had she done her homework, and understood that the disgraceful Canadian slaughter of young harp seals does not take place in the Arctic, but in and around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, a fair distance to the south.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

The University of California Press's "Encyclopedia of Animals" says:

<<
Conservation Watch:
Harp seal slaughter: In the late 1980s, a public outcry halted the clubbing of Canada's whitecoats, the very young pups of harp seals.  Older pups have since been hunted throughout the Atlantic Ocean, however, often at levels that could precipitate a serious decline in overall numbers.
>>

So yes, the slaughter continues, only of pups slightly older than the pure white ones.  But I do not believe there is any urgent danger of a decline in population as the effect of the slaughter.

Or so I am led to think.  Last year, however, observers in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence reported that the ice was too thin and fragmentary to support many seals, with the result that many pups drowned.  (They cannot swim when they are very young.)  It remains to be seen if that is part of a global-warming-related pattern.

Meanwhile, the seal slaughter is indeed a serious animal-welfare issue, but not yet a conservation issue.  (Perhaps Blueplanet and Suzannah might comment, if they are reading this.)

That said, even if the seal slaughter is not a conservation issue, it is most certainly an environmental issue, inasmuch as environmentalism is concerned with proper relations between human beings and other living creatures.

It is hard to believe that environmentalists might often justify the use of the term "pest."  Perhaps certain invasive species that are destructive, dangerous and difficult to eradicate can be called "pests," such as lampreys in the Great Lakes, cane toads in Australia and pythons in the Everglades.  But seals and sea lions?!

As for the deplorable old prejudice that predatory animals deserve to be strictly controlled, even eliminated, because they compete with human hunters (including fishers) for certain food animals (cod, in the case of the harp seal), that simply has no place among environmental values.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

All I say is the the Law of Unintended Consequences (my invention, darn it!) works in mysterious ways.  Let's take the Atlantic Striper, a sea bass famed for its sporting fight. They came back from seriously depleted stocks then to eating up about everything inshore, including lobsters, flounder, cod, shad, crabs, bait fish, and so forth. Catches of 4-foot long stripers are not uncommon. So while environmentalists hailed the come-back of the striper as a signal that their rules were working great, other stocks were depleted by this "Franken-Fish."

Oops, no offense there Al Franken!
-sammie

Onward through the fog

Lake County commissioners have declard a local state of emergency  for fear that this winters above average snow pack will melt and cause a catastrophic tidal wave.

The water is backed up in abandoned mine shafts and is contaminated with heavy metals.

The county officials have been monitoring rising water pressure inside the mine shafts for about two years. In the Eastern Coal fields we call this a mine blow out when the pressure pops the cork.

Most time we don't know which abandoned mine is about to blow until it happens.

At any rate when the ski season is over there may be some good surfing off that mountain.

To be more serious, the damage and risk to health and welfare of the people is no joke. It is not within my area of expertise to even talk about the impact on the water table from all those heavy metals.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Keep Pam away from the oceans!

And Sam, it should be pointed out that according to the Canadian Sealers Association, only about 10% of the seal meat for the Newfoundland hunt was collected in 2005. I haven't seen any more recent figures, but I imagine they're similar.  The commercial sealers are primarily after the pelts, not the meat. While the commercial sealers had a kill quota last year of 270,000 (which, it should be noted, they failed to actually meet as a result of the high pup mortality due to the horrible ice conditions), the Inuit quota was less than 10,000. So clearly the commercial harp seal hunt in Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence is not about feeding indigenous people in Nunavut, who most kill ring seals for their diet.

If Ms. Anderson, or Morrisey, or the other superrich anti-seal hunt celebrities would like to donate their millions towards expanding local economic opportunities other than sealing, I'd have much more respect for them.