Seal hunters |
| 01.00.00.00 |
| Bannerman: These are the pictures the Canadian government does not want the world to see.
| 00.18 |
| Seals being shot - gaffed - still alive.
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| In Canada, it is now a criminal offence to film or even to watch a seal hunt without a permit.
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| And as this undercover video shows, it is not hard to see why.
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Seals on ice flows | Having all but banned seal hunting in the 1980s, the Canadian government is now actively encouraging the hunt conservationists call the largest wildlife slaughter in the world. Is this a real industry, or simply a senseless slaughter? To seek an answer to that question, you must first understand the people of Canada's eastern coast, who see seal hunting as their birthright, indeed their heritage. | 00.50 |
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Map Canada | Music
| 01.25 |
Cape aux Meule | Bannerman: It is springtime, but after four months in suspended animation, the town of Cape aux Meule, on the Magdalen Islands, is feeling the last cool breath of winter.
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| Once a thriving town, it has now fallen on hard times.
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| With the collapse of the cod fishing industry, unemployment now hovers between 20 and 25 percent. Down in the harbour, fishing boats lie rusting and the huge conveyor belts that once teemed with fish are silent.
| 01.44 |
Hubert Interview
Super: JEAN HUBERT Le Radar Newspaper | Hubert: There's like a grey sky, like today, over the islands. And people sense that, you know, fishing's not going very well. Different businesses are closing and stuff. People are going outside the islands to find work. Help from government is going down. So the community is - I wouldn't say negative, but you know, discussing about negative aspects of the economy.
| 01.58 |
Churchyard | FX: Church bells
| 02.24 |
| Bannerman: Today as the community gathers for Sunday Mass, they will pray for ice, for seals. And for a good killing season. | 02.29 |
| There is a belief, indeed it is a doctrine here, that sealing will be the island's salvation.
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Labelle walking to cliffs | As the sealing season nears, the islands' oldest and most celebrated sealer, Willie Labelle, observes an early morning ritual. Each day he comes to the cliffs looking for ice flows, and to listen for the cry of the seal pups. | 02.45 |
| For 60 years now, it has been his life, and he can still recall his first hunt.
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Labelle interview | Labelle: My father had been hunting and he came to see me after school. I was fourteen or fifteen and he asked if I wanted to go on the hunt the next day - which was Saturday. I couldn't sleep that night, I was so excited. I had never been to a seal hunt. That fist day I hauled skins but I didn't kill any.
| 03.05 |
Labelle on dock | Bannerman: Back at the dock the men talk about the latest news. It is all bad. El Nino is melting the ice. It is thin and dangerous for sealing.
| 03.36 |
| Willie, though, is a king here. And the men listen to him very closely. His experience accords him a great status. For these men, sealing is more than a business. It has been their rite of passage, and each has come to terms with its brutality in their own way.
| 03.50 |
Labelle interview | Labelle: It can happen when you meet one of the baby seals and he looks at you with his big eyes and he is crying - and he's so cute that you cannot kill him and you must get another one.
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Ghyslain Cyr on boat | Bannerman: If Willis is sealing's past, Ghyslain Cyr is its future.
| 04.26 |
| This winter, he has left his boat in the water, so he can be first out on to the ice.
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| The trick is to arrive on the scene just as the seal pups are ready for killing.
| 04.40 |
Cyr interview | Cyr: When they arrive at 14, 15 days, anyway when they arrive at 12 days, the mothers let them go and they don't feed them any more. And then they move out from the herd, and then that's the time to go.
| 04.48 |
| Bannerman: Why are the little ones so good? What's good about the small seals?
| 05.02 |
| Cyr: It depends. When you take a look at the leather on the pelts, you get no scratch. That's a perfect leather, and thin leather. If you take the old one, lots of times they get a scratch, because they fight a lot, and they get hurt together. They get a bite on the back, and all that stuff. So that's why we take the small one.
| 05.06 |
Cyr sharpening knives | Bannerman: Ghyslain's desire to be out first does not surprise anyone who knows him. He is proud of his skill as a hunter. And like many sealers, he is still bitter that sealing was stopped at all in the 1980s.
| 05.31 |
Cyr interview | Cyr: They put the ban because all the people, the activists, was down in Europe, say all bad things from us. Like we are murderer and all that stuff. But you know, like me, when - if you go in the slaughterhouse for anything, it don't looks good.
| 05.44 |
Bannerman and Ghyslain walk to shed | Bannerman: Ghyslain believes sealing can clean up its act. And this year he's invested all he has in his boat and equipment.
| 06.07 |
| Bannerman: So this is your little hut in here, is it? This is your shed.
| 06.14 |
| Cyr: That's really my shed. It's the best place I can be in the winter.
| 06.17 |
| Bannerman: Listen, when did you start building this up here?
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| Cyr: In '92. Just before the...
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Bannerman and Ghyslain in shed | Bannerman: In an attempt to put it on an equal footing with other industries, sealers must now take courses in killing. And, as it turns out, Ghyslain is the instructor.
| 06.29 |
| Cyr: Like here we've got what we call the hagger pick. That's the long stick and that's what we use to knock the seals to make sure it is dead. You kill that with this.
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| Bannerman: So better than the gun, this here?
| 06.53 |
| Cyr: But one thing, when you get that in your hand, make sure that it's not lazy to do it, and you make sure then you never miss at the first shot. The first shot is dead. So you don't hurt the seals, it's just dead at the first shot with this.
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Video of sealing | Bannerman: But not every sealer shares Ghyslain's professionalism.
| 07.24 |
| In this home video shot by sealers from Newfoundland, a young sealer is given his initiation into the trade.
| 07.37 |
| And what an initiation it is.
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| Under government guidelines seals should be dispatched quickly and humanely. But that is not what happens here.
| 08.04 |
Watson interview
Super: PAUL WATSON Anti-Sealing Activist | Watson: If any slaughterhouse worker tried, attempted to do anything like that, they would be arrested, or they would lose their job. There's no controls out here. These people do whatever they want. They torture the animals, for their own pleasure, their own amusement. And that's totally unacceptable. | 08.13 |
| That's the only reason that they kill seals is for their own amusement. There's no money in it. It's something that their fathers did, their grandfathers did, their great grandfathers did. They're sort of filled with these romantic notions of what a manly pursuit it is. And as one Magdalen Island sealer said, it's a chance to get away from the wife, go out drinking with the boys, and kill something.
| 08.30 |
Anti-sealing video | Woman: To prevent this slaughter, and to prevent the hunters' ships from even getting to the seals breading ground, Paul and a couple of friends place themselves on the ice flows in the path of the ships.
| 08.52 |
| Bannerman: For twenty years now, Paul Watson has devoted himself to ending the seal hunt. As this 1980s documentary shows, he's been prepared to put his body on the line.
| 09.03 |
| Music
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| Bannerman: His protests paid off. Backed by Bridget Bardot, he forced the Canadian government to ban the hunting of seal pups or whitecoats.
| 09.22 |
| Now under a new government initiative, intended to boost the region's failing economy, the hunt is on again.
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| And once more, Watson has returned to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, vowing to embarrass the sealers and the government.
| 09.46 |
View from helicopter over ice | FX: Helicopter
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| Bannerman: Now, with less than a day left till the start of the sealing season, we have gone to find Watson and his crew. Forty kilometres out, we spot the first batch of seals, seconds later, Paul Watson's ship
| 09.59 |
| This converted fishing boat is his centre of operations.
| 10.15 |
Chopper landing on ship | And he's invited media from around the world to witness the seal hunt first hand.
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| FX: Seals
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| Bannerman: A veteran activist, he has placed the Sea Shepherd at the centre of the biggest herd of seals he can find.
| 10.36 |
| If the sealers want good hunting, they will have to come to him.
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| Aware that Watson will do everything he can to disrupt the hunt, the coastguard is on alert.
| 10.51 |
Bannerman, Watson and others on ice | Bannerman: Have they been shadowing closely for the last few days?
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Watson interview | Watson: The Canadian Coastguard has an icebreaker which has been within 8 to 10 miles of us for the last three days. There's been numerous over flights with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans airplane, and the Canadian Coastguard helicopters are every two hours over the top of us.
| 11.05 |
| Bannerman: What are they trying to tell you?
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| Watson: Well, they're trying to intimidate us more than anything else.
| 11.21 |
Seal and pup on ice | Bannerman: Will sealing start tomorrow? The regulations say these pups can't be killed till they begin to lose their white coats. Or are weaned.
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On board Sea Shepherd | Bannerman: Back aboard the Sea Shepherd, Watson has donned a survival suit.
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| Perhaps to show just how benign these creatures really are, he will go to meet them in their own element.
| 11.44 |
Watson in water with seals | Watson: This is incredible, you know, because you can get like a seal's eye view of the world.
| 11.58 |
| I think you can hear the crying a lot easier here.
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| Bannerman: With the cries of the babies all around us, there is a primal quality here. For now, you can only imagine what it will be like when and if the killing starts.
| 12.07 |
Island township | Bannerman: On the island, with the hunt just hours away, word of Watson's presence has filtered through.
| 12.19 |
| Ghyslain Cyr, though, is unconcerned. With his gear packed and his boat ready, he spends his time repairing fishing nets.
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| The battle lines are now well and truly drawn.
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| FX: Wind
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Ship in ice | Bannerman: The morning, though, brings no sign of Ghyslain and the sealers. A fifty knot gale will keep them in port.
| 12.43 |
Watson on Sea Shepherd looking through porthole at ice | Bannerman: Watson is perturbed all the same. The storm swell has shattered the ice into countless small pieces. The plates we walked on so easily yesterday now seem to be alive. | 12.53 |
| Out on the ice, the crew finds many of the pups in great danger. The hapless whitecoats can't swim yet, and if they fall into the icy water they will drown, or worse still, be crushed.
| 13.07 |
Seal climbing on to ice flow | Man: You can do it, you can do it, you do it! Hooray!
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| Woman: Don't go back in for christ sake.
| 13.26 |
On board Sea Shepherd | Bannerman: For now, Watson and his team can only wait out the storm and survey the damage.
| 13.32 |
Lisa interview | Lisa: This is just a nightmare out here. A lot of these seals aren't going to make it if it keeps breaking up like this.
| 13.37 |
| Bannerman: Along with his campaign director, Watson has a powerful ally in Jean Paul Di Jourio. Chief Executive of a multimillion dollar corporation, in the lead up to the seal hunt, he's offered to pay the sealers to stay at home. And to stop the killing. It's an offer, he says, that still stands.
| 13.42 |
Di Jourio interview | Di Jourio: Beyond any question of a doubt. Others have already offered, besides myself. Others have already offered and they said no. They don't make that much money. They make a few hundred dollars. That's it. There's about a hundred people involved. I mean let's say they made about a thousand dollars each, and there's a hundred people involved. Okay? Well, the money the Canadian government spends subsidising this far exceeds any money they make. Far exceeds. I think the Canadian government spends a few million subsidising this. It's ridiculous.
| 13.59 |
Canadian Sealing Association promotional video | Bannerman: This sort of talk of course incenses the Canadian Sealing Association. To counteract the Sea Shepherd's presence, and to mark the start of the sealing season, the group has launched a new video.
| 14.29 |
| Video voice over: Canadian seal, naturally beneficial. New and essential food and health products.
| 14.41 |
| Bannerman: Decidedly low tech, the video extols the virtues of products like seal meat, seal oil capsules, and fashion goods. It claims the industry will generate a hundred million dollars by the turn of the century.
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Sealer sharpening knife | FX: Knife
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| Bannerman: For now though, it's money from the Canadian taxpayer that keeps this killing industry alive. This year the government will pay a bounty of 25 cents per kilogram on seal meat. In addition, it will supply ice breakers, helicopters and information services.
| 15.02 |
Watson interview | Watson: I believe it's about $7 million. It's hard to really find...
| 15.20 |
| Bannerman: Seven million dollars in taxpayers' money goes to...
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| Watson: To subsidise the seal hunt.
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Sealers on ice/bloodied ice | Bannerman: When asked to provide the total subsidy for the industry, the government refuses, preferring to talk only about how much the hunt will generate. But even here it is cautious.
| 15.28 |
Robichaux interview
Super: JACQUES ROBICHAUX Hd. Dept. of Fisheries & Oceans | Robichaux: I don't want to put any figure for the simple reason - I have to explain that the hunt is conditional on the situation of the ice. If the ice is broken, it is difficult to access, we've seen in years where the total of this was at 150,000. And we could not reach more than 60,000. It depends how many animal.
| 14.40 |
Bloodied ice | Bannerman: If this approach to accounting and industry development seems somewhat ad hoc, it is. It's very clear talking with the government, this hunt will go ahead whatever the price.
| 16.04 |
On board Sea Shepherd | Monday brings clear skies. The captain and the crew must be on alert.
| 16.18 |
| Even as Watson plans his tactics, news arrives from the incoming helicopter that sealing boats are making their way through the ice.
| 16.32 |
| FX: Watson on 2-way.
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| Bannerman: Within seconds the crew is on the bridge, and the chase is on.
| 14.48 |
| Bannerman: How many sealing boats do you think are out there?
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| Watson: I think there's two over there now.
| 16.54 |
| Bannerman: There's just one problem, though. Between the Sea Shepherd and its quarry there are seals. Literally thousands of them. Just a gentle push from the ship will tip them into the sea.
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| Watson: I don't want to know about the pups when they're underneath of us.
| 17.06 |
| Bannerman: Progress is painstakingly slow and the tension bubbles over.
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| Watson: Well, what the hell are they doing their job up there? Are they chatting or something?
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| Lisa: Why aren't you doing your job!
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Sea Shepherd members on boat/bloodied seal | Bannerman: But differences are soon forgotten when gunshots are heard.
| 17.21 |
| Watson: There's a bleeding seal right here.
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| Lisa: It's a fucking gunshot.
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| Watson: Well they're just shooting them from the boats.
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Sealing boat | Bannerman: Now the sealing boat is in clear view. Watson has decided, though, to stand off at a legal distance, and send a party out on foot.
| 17.32 |
Watson interview | Watson: Well if I took the boat in any closer, they'd seize the ship, there's no doubt about that. They would come in here with two ice breakers, a Sea King helicopter, and mounted police and everything. And my experience with them is they're not too, they're not too gentle.
| 17.40 |
Men donning survival suits | Bannerman: As they don their survival suits, the crew is warned what to do in case of arrest.
| 17.54 |
| Lisa: And they're very good at interrogation. And they're very good at asking you questions...
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Two members on ice | Bannerman: At this point, though, fate takes a hand. With the whitecoats sinking all around, the crew must stop to help.
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| In all, the rescues take less than 15 minutes, but crucial time is lost.
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| In those moments, the coastguard and the sealing vessel have begun to move away, and any chance of a physical confrontation is gone.
| 18.23 |
Watson on 2-way | Bannerman: Clearly frustrated, Watson gets on the radio to needle the coastguard.
| 18.40 |
| Watson on 2-way: Are you guys running down any little seal pups when you come through the ice at that speed? Over.
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| Coastguard: No, sir, we're not running down any seal pups. We're taking great care not to bother them. How about you?
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| Watson on 2-way: I certainly have seen you in the past running them down and chopping them up into little bits. So that's why I'm asking you this. Because I saw the Johnny McDonald doing exactly that, killing hundreds of them.
| 18.56 |
| Coastguard: Whatever, Mr Watson. If we ran one down it was purely by accident and not necessarily...
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| Watson: Now he's admitting it.
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| Coastguard: ...to do it on purpose. I've been trying to take extreme care.
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Ships in ice | Bannerman: In the days that follow, Watson and his crew continue to hunt the sealers. But like the ice, for now it seems they have melted away.
| 19.18 |
| Music
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| Bannerman: For now, both sides must play a waiting game.
| 19.34 |
Labelle interview | Labelle: I always love to go and see the herd of seals. Every year I go to see them. It's like an illness - When the herd arrives, you must go.
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Watson interview | Watson: Personally, I call them the maganderthals, you know, from murder island really. As far as I'm concerned the entire Magdalen Islands is an embarrassment to the rest of Canada.
| 19.51 |
| Bannerman: Of course, when all is said and done, it may well be the warming of the planet that drives the seals finally from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. For in this struggle, as in so many others, the last word is always with Mother Nature.
| 20.05 |
| Music
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ENDS |
| 20.30 |