By Eleanor Momberg
South African-based conservation groups have appealed to the Namibian government to stop killing seals, and to turn its seal population into an income-earning tourist attraction.
The appeal was made by Francois Hugo of Seal Alert-SA, Herbert Henrich of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Celeste Houseman, the campaign manager of the Namibian Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
They met Namibian prime minister Nahas Angula, as well as the minister of information and the minister of fisheries and marine and coastal management, in Windhoek last week.
The Namibian government has granted licences to three concessionaires for killing up to 80 000 pups and 6 000 bulls during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 culling seasons. The culling season runs from July 1 to November 15.
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Although the Namibian government has not commented on the meeting, Hugo says the session was cordial. He has been trying to secure a formal meeting for eight years.
"When I was going there, my thing was that we need to protect the seal population at all costs. Now I really just want to help the Namibians sort out the problem they have and I hope that we can seriously work together on this. I have offered my assistance to them, so I hope that they will accept it," he said.
A second meeting is to be held with the ministry of fisheries and marine resources on August 9.
Hugo said the challenge to Seal Alert-SA by the Namibian authorities to come up with alternatives to culling and managing the country's growing Cape fur seal population would be addressed at next month's meeting.
"There is no humane method to harvest or kill nursing baby seals," he said, adding that his organisation strongly rejected claims that it was damaging the Namibian economy by calling for an end to seal culling.
The opposite is true, he said in a letter to Angula after their meeting.
"You are killing nursing baby seals in full view of all your visitors and you are now surprised that there is an international outcry, a global ban on seal products and a direct impact on your country's tourist industry.
"By your own statements, this industry employs 140 unskilled people and it generates an export earning of less than $100 000 per year. This, minister, is not an industry. It is a small-scale business which violates the concept of animal welfare and contributes next to nothing to your national economy."
Hugo said he had informed the Namibian ministers during a presentation, which included raw video footage of seal clubbing, that the annual killing was destroying the natural breeding and reproductive cycle of seals, causing unnatural growth in the population.
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