The poll, conducted by YouGov (17-20th July) revealed that 64% of the public think the law should be changed to protect all UK seals from deliberate killing, with just 13% disagreeing.

58% believe that High Street retailers should not buy salmon from any suppliers that kill UK seals’ with only 15% disagreeing.

53% of people who buy salmon products said they would be prepared to pay more for them to stop UK seals being killed, with only 20% disagreeing.  61% of women polled said they would be prepared to pay more.

“With the majority of people supporting a change in the law to protect seals and believing that High Street retailers should not buy salmon from producers that shoot seals, the tide is turning against the routine killing of our seals” said Andy Ottaway of the Seal Protection Action Group, “Even in these harsh economic times over half of the salmon buying public said they would be prepared to pay more for salmon products to stop seals being killed”.

Under the Conservation of Seals Act (1970), seals can be killed in Scotland and the rest of the UK to prevent ‘serious damage’ to fish stock or equipment. Seals can even be killed in the closed or breeding seasons despite the risk that dependent pups will be left to starve. SPAG argues that salmon can and should be protected by measures that do not involve the killing of seals, such as the mandatory use of anti-predator netting and other devices on fish farms.

We also believe that thousands of seals are shot in Scottish waters alone each year. The Industry has disputed these figures, but under existing laws there is no requirement to report the numbers being killed. 

127 MPs have signed a Parliamentary Motion calling for the law to be changed to protect seals from all deliberate killing and for the British and Scottish Governments to liaise on the issue. The Scottish Government has already begun a programme of selective culling of seals in the Moray Firth that it intends to expand throughout Scotland. Additionally, the Scottish Government wants to introduce a licensing scheme for killing seals that would require reporting the number of seals being shot. The British Government has said that seals are a devolved issue for Scotland and that the law protecting seals is perfectly adequate.

Common seals are suffering what has been described by Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) scientists as a ‘frightening decline’ nationwide. Although shooting is not directly blamed, SPAG believes that it should be banned to allow populations to recover. SPAG also accuse the industry of a ‘culture of killing seals’ that can only be changed with a change in the law.

SPAG has dismissed recent reports that grey seals might ‘impair the recovery of cod stocks’ arguing it was ‘too simplistic and convenient’ to blame seals when clearly chronic over-fishing had caused the collapse and that other factors, such as climate change, were impacting upon their recovery.  

Alan Knight, Chief Executive of International Animal Rescue, said: “Common seals are one of the UK’s most popular marine mammals and now we know that most people in the UK don’t want them to be slaughtered to put salmon on their plates. Fish farmers must be persuaded to adopt alternative means of protecting their salmon that will allow seals to be left in peace.”

PRESS ENQUIRIES: Please click here to download the official media release

POLL RESULTS: Please click here to download the poll results

The seals are clubbed to death for their skins, fur and meat, with the genitals sold as traditional medicines and aphrodisiacs in the Far East. The sealing industry in Namibia is only worth around £400,000, while tourism, including seal-watching at Cape Cross, is worth many millions.

Cape Cross is a dedicated ‘seal reserve’, yet every morning between 6-9am the hunters club around 200 seal pups to death. At 10am, coach loads of international tourists arrive to take photos of the few terrified seals left behind, unaware of the massacre that has just taken place.

“It is beyond belief how anyone could inflict such appalling cruelty on these defenceless creatures” said Andy Ottaway of the Seal Protection Action Group, “We are determined to end the Namibian seal hunt just as soon as we can”

Take Action:

Please help us to stop Namibia’s cruel seal hunt by protesting to the Namibian Embassy in your country, please click here for further details.

You can also help SPAG to protect seals around the world by:

The ban will be implemented in 2010 and will help save hundreds of thousands of seals that are brutally clubbed, shot and often skinned alive each year in Canada and around the world.

“The European ban is a massive blow to the seal killers that profit from horrific cruelty to defenceless animals”, said Andy Ottaway, Campaign Director of SPAG, “However, seals are still being persecuted all over the world including in Scotland and we will continue to actively campaign to provide them with the full protection they deserve.”

It is estimated that thousands of seals are killed each year by the Scottish salmon industry with scientists recently reporting a ‘frightening decline’ in common seals around the UK coast. The Scottish Government has recently suggested that this decline may be due to competition with grey seals or even predation by orcas (killer whales) however these statements lack scientific credibility. 

On 30th April the Scottish Government launched its draft Marine Bill announcing a licensing system for killing seals and salmon farms, salmon netsmen and sea fisheries will be able to apply for a license to shoot seals. The Seal Protection Action Group welcomes stronger legislation to protect Scotland’s marine environment, but we do not believe that a licensing system for killing seals is desirable, realistic or enforceable.

“European nations have voted by public demand to protect seals from cruelty yet Scotland continues to persecute these wonderful animals”, said Andy Ottaway, “Seal killing leaves an indelible stain on the international image of both Scotland and Scottish salmon products and must be stopped.”

We are calling on members of the public to avoid Scottish salmon unless their retailer can guarantee that producers do not shoot seals. Please show your support by signing our ‘Save Scotland’s Seals’ pledge.

You can also help SPAG to protect seals by:

Millions of viewers watched the show and we have been overwhelmed by the number of people that have contacted us expressing their support for our campaign.

If you missed the show, then don’t worry, it will be available to watch until 11th April online via BBC’s I-Player.

In addition to Countryfile, our campaign was on the BBC 1 News and also covered by:

BBC News Online         

The Daily Telegraph

MSN News

The Scotsman

And many others!

For further details about our campaign to protect seals in the UK, please click here.

PRESS ENQUIRIES: Please contact us for further details

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Last week, SPAG’s Campaign Director Andy Ottaway travelled to a remote location in western Scotland to film an interview for the programme, hosted by veteran broadcaster John Craven, to highlight our campaign to stop the shooting of seals by the Scottish salmon industry.

“Millions of Countryfile viewers will be horrified to learn that dead seals is the price of Scottish salmon,” said Andy Ottaway, “We want retailers to insist that salmon producers stop killing seals and members of the public to avoid all Scottish salmon products until they do”.

For further details about our campaign to protect seals in the UK, please click here.

The show will also be available online from 5th April via the BBC I-Player, please click here for further details.

PRESS ENQUIRIES: Please click here to download the official media release

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called the hunt a “bloody industry” and said “it is clear that our hunt should have been banned a long time ago.”

Yury Trutnyev, Russia’s Natural Resources Minister has called seal hunting “one of the most inhumane types of hunting in the world, which is banned in the vast majority of developed states.”
SPAG is campaigning to end the commercial slaughter of seals worldwide and is calling for a comprehensive ban on trade in all seal products within the European Union.

Earlier this month, an influential EU committee voted in favour of a ban on trade and rejected proposals for a labelling scheme that would have allowed trade to continue.

However, as Russia is a major importer of Canadian seal pelts, SPAG is calling on President Putin to also ban imports of seal products. If he does, this would be another huge blow to the Canadian sealers and help put a final end to the hunt of 300,000 seals a year in Canada, the world’s largest slaughter of marine mammals.

“This is fantastic news and yet another massive blow to the global sealing industry that profits from the appalling suffering inflicted upon these defenceless creatures worldwide” said Andy Ottaway, Campaign Director of SPAG, “however, there is much more needs to be done to protect all seals from cruel slaughter and we are determined to do so.”

The world’s second largest large seal hunt takes place in Namibia, seal hunts also take place in Norway, Greenland and the UK.

In the UK, an estimated 5,000 seals are deliberately killed in Scottish waters alone each year, by salmon farming and angling interests. Recently scientists reported a ‘frightening’ decline in the number of common seals around the UK coast.

SPAG is calling on the Scottish and UK Governments to create effective legislation to provide seals with the full protection they deserve. Please click here for further details about our ‘Saving Scotland’s Seals campaign and how you can help.

Please help SPAG to protect seals by:

The Seal Protection Action Group (SPAG) is delighted with this decision. SPAG has been actively campaigning for the ban, and we lobbied key Committee members before the vote urging them to support a complete ban and to reject a proposed seal product labeling scheme instead. The labeling scheme would have allowed seal imports to continue from countries that kill seals provided they met strict guidelines intended to make the killing of seals more humane.

In January, the Canadian Government, that sanctions the world’s largest seal cull, announced changes in domestic killing regulations in an attempt to make the Canadian cull appear more humane and so allow the seal trade to continue.

The European Parliamentary Committee’s vote sets a clear mandate to the European Commission that a comprehensive ban on trade must be adopted.

“A comprehensive ban on trade in seal products within the European Union will be a massive blow to the seal killers that profit from appalling cruelty to defenseless animals” said Andy Ottaway, Campaign Director of SPAG, “However, we still have a lot of work to do to greater protect the hundreds of thousands seals still being slaughtered  worldwide”.

In addition to the massive Canadian seal cull, where over 300,000 seals are clubbed and shot each year, large scale seal hunts also take place in countries such as Namibia, Norway, Russia, Greenland and the UK.

In the UK, an estimated 5,000 seals are deliberately killed in Scottish waters alone each year, by salmon farming and angling interests. Although the UK Government is supporting an EU ban on all seal product imports, SPAG is concerned at the woefully inadequate protection afforded to the UK’s globally important populations of common and grey seals.

SPAG is working hard to protect the hundreds of thousands of seals being persecuted worldwide. For further details about our campaigns and how you can get involved, please click here.

PRESS ENQUIRIES: Please click here to contact us for further information

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EDM 678: Protection for seals – That this House recognises the UK’s international obligations to maintain its globally important seal populations at a favourable conservation status; notes that seal populations remain depleted and are threatened by further outbreaks of the phocine distemper virus and remain under increasing threat from climate change, depletion of prey species pollution and deliberate killing; notes with extreme concern scientific reports of a frightening decline in the population of common seals in UK waters; further notes that an estimated 5,000 seals are shot in Scottish waters by the salmon industry; believes that the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 is outdated and in urgent need of review or replacement; and calls on the Government to implement an immediate and comprehensive ban on the deliberate killing of all seals, to replace the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 with legislation for the comprehensive protection of seals in the forthcoming Marine Bill and to liaise with the Scottish Executive to this end.

Mr Tipping said:

““It makes no sense to be shooting seals however much of a threat they might occasionally be to fish farms. When you have a population that looks as though it is going through a terminal collapse measures must be taken to stop that.”

SPAG is calling on the public to contact their MP’s asking them to support Paddy Tipping’s EDM.

The easiest way to contact your MP is by visiting www.writetothem.com. Once on the site, search for your MP using your post code and then simply send a message using the box provided.

For information about our campaign to protect seals in the UK and how you can help – please click here.

PRESS ENQUIRIES: Please click here to contact us for further information

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*S3M-3167 Robin Harper: Protection for Seals—That the Parliament calls on the Scottish Government to recognise the threat to the seal population in Scottish waters from disease, climate change and shooting; particularly notes the recent dramatic and unexplained reduction in the population of common seals; also notes that processes for reporting and recording of seal deaths by shooting are not consistent or accurate, and therefore calls for an immediate ban on the shooting of common seals and a commitment from government to replace the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 with a much firmer commitment to seal protection in the forthcoming Marine Bill.

(Source: Scottish Parliament web site)

Mr Harper said:

“This decline in common seal numbers is extremely alarming. They are an iconic symbol of Scottish marine life, but they are also at the top of the food chain and provide us with strong indicators of the health of the marine environment.”

SPAG is calling on the Scottish public to contact their MSP’s asking them to support Robin Harpers Motion.

The easiest way to contact your MSP is by visiting www.writetothem.com. Once on the site, search for your MP using your post code and then simply send a message using the box provided.

For information about our campaign to protect seals in the UK and how you can help – please click here.

PRESS ENQUIRIES: Please click here to contact us for further information

You can also help SPAG protect our seals by: