Re: “Seal hunt methods continue to draw fire,” by Tamara Goertz, Viewpoint, April 10-16, 2008.

It’s Walt Disney’s fault. That chain-smoking, Nazi sympathizer made a fortune giving every creature, great and small, a spunky personality and a cutesy-poo voice to go with it. And so, when a voracious predator like the harp seal comes along, with eyes a Hollywood press agent would die for, all the protesters come out of the woodwork, lattes in one hand, ban-the-seal-hunt signs in the other.

According to Wikipedia, the harp seal is an ocean-going predator that can grow up to 180 kilograms and can live up to 30 years. It has an extremely low risk of becoming endangered. Its main predators are polar bears, killer whales, sharks, the occasional walrus and man. Based on numbers from the year 2000, the East Coast harp seal ate 800,000 metric tonnes of cod. Gee, where did the fisheries go? If the hunt was cancelled, double that number. Oh, and let’s not forget that seal fecal matter, when found in great amounts in the ocean, is a leading cause of worms in codfish, rendering them unmarketable.

What to do? Tell Newfoundlanders to take up macramé? Jig for squid? (Oh yes, harp seals eat those, too, in alarming numbers.) And as far as there being no market for seal meat? Check the web. There are recipes, so I assume the sealers feed their families with the meat. By the way, have you ever been to the East Coast? You’ll meet some amazing folks. For the record, I am not from the Maritimes.

My point is, don’t judge a book by its cover. Nature has balances. Unchecked, the seal population will continue to deplete a major world food source — the cod from the Grand Banks — and also, wise up to your Uncle Walt.

Mike Brennan,

Calgary