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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 9, 1987)
Thursday, April 9, 1987/The Battalion/Page 11 ! ho Pe we'||, t'lttlball Hj|| Ro ger St® rmer AjcM ik on Pav| as ' le p ln h ' s roo,„ wl ?s’ tab, P'e of. Bui Pi “ com pariso li World and Nation lor i hesaii'i ,ne pass or ece level." t™ as that is, j ® a colbe the yoi handling he pressure 'e said. “Bui ;rson is ran do." Pelt hunting causes strife on small Canadian island Fishermen, crusaders clash over seal killings Ivew IQ fion ! and loob >ro baseballi/ ed straij s limited, on Texas 1 h Mark jo nislv a tale GROSSE ILE, Quebec (AP) — Ihristopher Clark works at a trade s demanding and as historically lonorable as any a man could loose. He is a fisherman. He trusts in the bounty of the sea nd in his own hard labor, which is lore reliable. He is gentle to his bildren and his pets, and he pays is bills on time. His neighbors on is tiny island off Canada’s east ast know him as an upright man. “Then why do Davies and those I ople call me a barbarian, a mur- trer,” Clark asked. “No,” said Brian Davies, stung Ithen he heard of the remark. “I have never thought of the Magdalen Islanders as murderers, only of the hunt as murderous.” I The Magdalens are a cluster of fne islands in the Gulf of St. Law- nce inhabited by 14,000 people, [hey are the closest points of land to e annual birthing grounds of one of two huge herds of harp seals. and profess t people ve come arom ind entta ■ ranks, are finallyl ■re are a lot n college bi rtainment t id. “We fin last vearin 1 we tried it bere at ike ;nts to cotr ig part of tl es the rise ipetitive ha For centuries, islanders took to e floating ice nursery every March to club to death tens of thousands of wborn seals, called “whitecoats,” d skin them on the spot. Their wny pelts fetched, in most recent ars, about $35 each. After 20 years of publicity gener- fated by crusaders for animal rights, Brtably Brian Davies, the annual jBjoodleuing ended. And so, of Itourse, did a portion of the uncer- lain income of fishermen like ristopher Clark. The differences between the fish- man and the crusader, then, are deeper than semantic. “What would happen,” Clark was ked one recent afternoon during a at in his snug kitchen, “What would happen if Brian Davies were nning t"SJ t0 pay a visit to the Magdalen Is- x aiourbi':fi nc j s p » teams, “'■“Nothing, probably,” Clark said, noting upBBy e are peaceful people.” Then he id in the pas st two were out ( ing from . J ell fromTl iking for devision ting years, linted ier go out® game in hi don't M V added, “But I would not advise Mr. Davies to do that.” Clark said he thinks the whitecoat hunt will be resumed. “The hunt is still legal,” he said. “It will be resumed for economic reasons. All we need is a market and the government is trying to develop one. Davies’ tactic in stopping the hunt, having despaired of getting it de clared illegal, was to persuade the “I have never thought of the Magdalen Islanders as murderers, only of the seal hunt as murderous. ” — Brian Davies, Interna tional Fund for Animal Welfare head European Economic Community to join the United States in banning im ports of whitecoat pelts. No more market, no more hunt. Almost. The Canadian government this year authorized a 57,000-pelt hunt for “older” seals, specifying that the sealers use rifles instead of clubs. At least one company took advantage of it and sent a sealing ship to the sec ond seal herd, off Labrador. So confident, however, are the Magdalen Islanders that the pup hunt will be resumed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nearly all the 1,000 who engaged in it before the ban have continued to renew their li censes each year. “We’re not issuing any new li censes,” said Jean-Yves Roy, the spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans assigned to the Magdalens. “To renew a license they have to have had a valid one for two of the past five years. “But most of them are not even taking advantage of the grace pe riod. About 900 renewed this year, same as last year and the year be fore, and it has been four years since the import ban. The license only costs $5, but to a fisherman out of work, five dollars is five dollars.” When the hunt was in full swing, steel-hulled vessels representing big fur companies crunched through the ice to the sealing grounds of both herds to “harvest” a legal quota of 186,000 harp pups. Fewer than 40,000 pelts, though, were taken by the Magdalen Island ers, some working off the big ships for salaries, but most of them work ing as individuals venturing onto the shifting ice floes dragging their own wooden dories. On the average, it meant about $1 million a year to the islanders at a time when their fishing boats were still sitting on trailers in back yards waiting for spring. Clark said, “That was the average, but the ice blows this way and that, and some years we made nothing be cause the ice stayed too far out to sea for us to reach it. Other years it blew the ice in close to shore and we might make as much as 1,500. “So we never could really count on the seal hunt for steady income. It was always supplemental income. When it came our way it was a bles sing. It meant new fishing equip ment, things like that. Before the days of unemployment checks it meant even more.” It is now Brian Davies’ aim to rec ompense that lost $1 million by building a tourist trade that will bring at least that much to the is lands during their economic low point of the year. Davies’ organization, the Interna tional Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), has put up $1 million to get the business off the ground. McDavid Olds/Suzuki 641-8400 OPEN TILL 9 PM MON.-SAT. 6800 GULF FREEWAY-HOUSTON fex] lit M LUNCH BUFFET Noon-2 p.m. Except Sat. SUNDAY NITE BUFFET e-sp.m. More Than 12 Items <I5A 25 \j/“ ■ Senior Citizen & Children Under 12 $3.“ DAILY LUNCH SPECIAL $2." 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