From: sasealion@wam.co.za
Subject: Namibia Sealing Industry - Missing Scientific Data
Date: August 6, 2006 9:52:27 PM GMT+01:00
Dear All,
This is my 3rd request to CITES - please see charts below. Although no message from CITES has been received - I understand they are meeting in this regard and a reply will be forthcoming this week. Thank you all for your support in this very urgent of matter. If we are to halt and end this genocide slaughter of these pups we have to do so now - Francois.
Contact Numbers :
◦ Cites Secretariat - Deputy Secretary-general Jim Armstrong +41 (22) 917 8127
◦ Cites Animal Committee - Dr Edson Chidziya +263 (4) 79 27 86
----- Original Message -----
From: SealAlert-SA
To: natparks@africaonline.co.zw ; mostmahm@lycos.com ; research@kws.org ; abdelhamidkarem@yahoo.fr
Cc: willem.wijnstekers@cites.org ; jim.armstrong@cites.org ; john.sellar@cites.org ; marie-france.barreto@cites.org ; marceil.yeater@cites.org
Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2006 8:09 PM
Subject: Namibia Sealing Industry - Missing Scientific Data
Dear CITES Animals Committee and the Secretariat,
I refer to the article by Eleanor Momberg published in the national Sunday Independent (below) and the article published in the Windhoek Observer by Donna Collins (see attached - below note aap). Please see below as well as further relevant details and charts.
I refer to the Sealing Industry of Namibia in regard to
Arctocephalus pusillus (Cape fur Seals).
Could you please review the Table #1 by Seal Alert-SA.
In the Commission on Sealing in
1990 - which resulted in South Africa stopping its sealing
policy on the same species, it stated;
◦ "If the objective is the reduction of the total
seal population, the most efficient way to achieve this is
to cull the adult females; however, it must be appreciated
that the products from such a cull have negligible economic
value, so that such an operation will not be
self-financing".
Since Namibia's independence in 1990 -
its Sealing Industry has consisted of a Pup and a Bull
Quota - No adult Cows are harvested.
◦ As an Appendix II species - An export permit
may be issued only if the specimen was legally obtained and
if the export will not be detrimental to the survival of
the species.
◦ Minister Abraham Iyambo of the Namibian Fisheries
and Marine Resources has stated Seals are harvested in
Namibia in accordance with Article 95 (1) of our
Constitution which requires the State to adopt policies
aimed at "the utilization of living natural resources on a
sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians"
Dr B.J van Zyl of the Ministry of
Fisheries has stated the following;
◦ "The Challenge of the new regulations - ....
regarding the use of the whole carcass was met and new
products, markets and techniques were developed".
◦ "Population surveys are carried out in the period
18-24 December each year when the oldest pups are less than
6 weeks of age".
◦ "Since 1987 the Marine Mammal Section of the
Directorate of Resource Management has had the task of
advising the Ministry on management of the seal population,
and of recommending harvest levels annually for the
different colonies".
◦ "Recommended pup harvests may be as high as 30% of
pups born".
◦ "Scientific recommendations are submitted in
confidentiality to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry
of Fisheries during June each year. After review,
recommendations are then forwarded to the Minister of
Fisheries for consideration and amendment before submission
to Cabinet".
◦ The two largest breeding aggregations, Cape Cross,
and Wolf/Atlas Bay colonies are responsible for 75% of the
Namibian pup production".
Could you therefore please review the below Table #1 -
Could CITES please therefore ensure that all vacant blocks
and its data is accumulated and filled in.
SEAL ALERT-SA NAMIBIAN
SEALING INDUSTRY AVAILABLE
DATA
◦ Pup Production - the pup population on the sealing
colonies of Cape Cross and Wolf/Atlas Bay revealed in their
annual surveys during the 18-24 December.
◦ Natural Mortality - Based on the natural
mortality experienced by pups since birth and by July
1.
◦ Mass Die-Off Starvation - The total number of pups
that died in these sealing colonies, for each year, between
1990 - 2006, excluding the natural mortality of 25-32% (the
mass die-off incidents reported of starvation).
◦ Pups alive July 1 - The total number of "sealing"
pups still alive in these sealing colonies on July 1.
◦ Pup Quota - The Namibian TAC pup quota for each
year.
◦ Exported Skins - The total number of exported pup
skins for each year.
◦ CITES Exports - CITES approved exports of these
pup skins for each year.
◦ Exported Carcasses - The total bodies, gall
bladders, live, meat, oil, skin pieces, skulls and trophies
exported each year.
◦ Bull Quota - The total bull quota for these
sealing colonies per year.
◦ Exported Penises - The total number of penises
exported per year.
I refer to your Table enclosed in your report of the
CITES Animals Committee Meetings in 2004.
Minister Iyambo has stated prior
to the commencement of the sealing seasons in 2000 and 2006
when he increased the sealing quotas;
◦ Pup production in 2000 - was 10% below pre-1993
levels.
◦ Pup production in 2006 - was 27% below pre-1993
levels.
Clearly from these two statements the
Namibian seal population has since 1993 - not been
able to support a "utilization of a living resource on
a sustainable basis" under its Constitution and under
the regulations of the United Nations of CITES for Appendix
II species, "An export permit may be issued only if the
specimen was legally obtained and if the export will not be
detrimental to the survival of the species".
Could you please reply to my emails dated 24th July and the
4th August 2006, in similar connection thereto.
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
- - - - - - -
From: "SealAlert-SA" <<a
href="mailto:sasealion@wam.co.za"
rel="self">sasealion@wam.co.za>
Date: August 3, 2006 8:09:12 PM GMT+01:00
To: <<a
href="mailto:Johannesburg.Radio@ard.de"
rel="self">Johannesburg.Radio@ard.de>, "Elma
Robberts" <<a href="mailto:paper01@iway.na"
rel="self">paper01@iway.na>, <<a
href="mailto:news@namibian.com.na"
rel="self">news@namibian.com.na>, "donnanews"
<<a href="mailto:donnanews@africaonline.com.na"
rel="self">donnanews@africaonline.com.na>, "Eleanor
Momberg" <<a href="mailto:eleanor.momberg@inl.co.za"
rel="self">eleanor.momberg@inl.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:sara@capetalk.co.za"
rel="self">sara@capetalk.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:penny@carteblanche.co.za"
rel="self">penny@carteblanche.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:truth@sabc.co.za"
rel="self">truth@sabc.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:fionam@mg.co.za"
rel="self">fionam@mg.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:suntimes@sundaytimes.co.za"
rel="self">suntimes@sundaytimes.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:jurgensa@sundaytimes.co.za"
rel="self">jurgensa@sundaytimes.co.za>, "Nellie
Brand" <<a href="mailto:NBrand@dieburger.com"
rel="self">NBrand@dieburger.com>, <<a
href="mailto:tmenges@kaapseson.com"
rel="self">tmenges@kaapseson.com>, "Elise Tempelhoff"
<<a href="mailto:eliset@beeld.com"
rel="self">eliset@beeld.com>, "Bienne Huisman"
<<a href="mailto:HuismanB@sundaytimes.co.za"
rel="self">HuismanB@sundaytimes.co.za>, "Melanie-Ann
Feris" <<a href="mailto:MFeris@citypress.co.za"
rel="self">MFeris@citypress.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:duncan@sapa.org.za"
rel="self">duncan@sapa.org.za>, "christof" <<a
href="mailto:christof@namibian.com.na"
rel="self">christof@namibian.com.na>, "Zemburuka, I"
<<a href="mailto:izemburuka@nbc.com.na"
rel="self">izemburuka@nbc.com.na>, <<a
href="mailto:newsroom@etv.co.za"
rel="self">newsroom@etv.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:noseark@noseweek.co.za"
rel="self">noseark@noseweek.co.za>, "Slager, Seije"
<<a href="mailto:s.slager@trouw.nl"
rel="self">s.slager@trouw.nl>, <<a
href="mailto:joy@carteblanche.co.za"
rel="self">joy@carteblanche.co.za>, <<a
href="mailto:daley@nytimes.com"
rel="self">daley@nytimes.com>
Cc: <<a
href="mailto:willem.wijnstekers@cites.org"
rel="self">willem.wijnstekers@cites.org>, <<a
href="mailto:jim.armstrong@cites.org"
rel="self">jim.armstrong@cites.org>, <<a
href="mailto:john.sellar@cites.org"
rel="self">john.sellar@cites.org>, <<a
href="mailto:marie-france.barreto@cites.org"
rel="self">marie-france.barreto@cites.org>, <<a
href="mailto:marceil.yeater@cites.org"
rel="self">marceil.yeater@cites.org>
Subject:
Seal Extermination Program - Namibia Style
Dear All Seal Supporters,
Attached (see below note aap) is
the article by Donna Collins of the Windhoek Observer
in Namibia.
It is distributed and therefore
read on Namibian's inter - national airlines, amongst other
places - if it persuades or re-directs potential
tourists to take their hard earned holidays in another
country more akin to protecting than exterminating
their wildlife - then Namibia's Sealing Industry is a
liability and not a benefit. If it convinces just 200
potential tourists annually to stay away from Namibia
- Sealing becomes a major liability.
Seal
Extermination Program - Namibian Style
In the Commission on Sealing in 1990 - which
resulted in South Africa stopping its sealing policy on the
same species, it stated;
"If the objective is the reduction of the total seal
population, the most efficient way to achieve this is to
cull the adult females; however, it must be appreciated
that the products from such a cull have negligible economic
value, so that such an operation will not be
self-financing".
Not
self-financing - and therein lies the dilemma
of the Namibian sealing industry. The seals must pay for
their own slaughter !
Hence the Sealing quota for 2006 of 85 000
pups and 6000 bulls and no adult
females.
Albert Brink of Sealion Products, a sealer
with 20 years in the industry and the man behind the
increased quota from 65 000 to 85 000 - claims he is just a
farmer. "View it as another type of farming - we kill sheep
and cattle everyday - so why not seals" ?
If either one of us - took just one Cape
fur seal home to love and keep as a pet. Within minutes we
would have an armed troop of NSPCA, WWF, IFAW, South
African Police Services and SA government conservation
officials banging down our door - just for, one Cape fur
seal. Albert Brink can kill 85 000 nursing baby seals every
year and everything is fine - he is "farming".
If I rescue and save the life of a dying baby
seal, incurring over R4000 in feed costs alone, and over
2000 hours raising this pup - I can claim no ownership or
exploitation rights. Albert Brink on the other-hand, can
come along wait for nature to carry all the costs to grow
this nursing pup (to a sealing age), and then club its
brains out and sell its skin for just US $3 - and then
claim he is a "Seal Farmer".
If he had even half the costs I have or
any other "commercial farmer" - How much would he have to
sell each baby seal's skin for - R2000, R4000 or R6000,
instead of his usual $3. Why should he alone be allowed
this "exclusive profit" on these terms? If he had a market
for 85 000 skins (as he wanted the increased quota) - would
he be so keen to feed 85 000 seals at R4000 each to bring
them to "market" and sell them for $3 ? How long would this
"Seal Farmer" stay in the seal farming business in this
way?
If he sold them for the costs normally
incurred by commercial farmers - would there be any market
at all for Cape fur seal skins, at R2000 a skin ?
Or - is this just a Namibian government Seal
Termination Program - Like Hitler's extermination attempt
of the Jews. Is Brink - the SS and his factory - the
"gas chambers" and the mainland colonies - the
"concentration camps" and the seal skins - the "gold tooth
fillings" ? Afterall was Namibia not formerly a German
controlled territory, and did these mainland seal colonies
not start at the same time Hitler invaded Poland ?
The answer to this, lies in Brink's own words
to a reporter - "I am carrying out orders
on behalf of the Ministry of Fisheries".
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
*.*.*
Seal clubbing gets
Flack from world
Animal groups
Donna
Collins
In a major
effort to end the last baby seal hunt on earth, which is
currently taking place in Namibia, Seal Alert-SA and animal
activist supporters will be holding a legal protest this
Friday outside the Namibian High Commission in Pretoria to
demonstrate and call a halt to this mass killing.
"
I have
urged the Namibian Minister of Fisheries and Marine
Resources Mr Abraham Iyambo to use this opportunity to come
in line with international standards and norms and like
South Africa did in 1990 - and announce the end to
sealing," said Francois Hugo (Seal Alert SA).
To date an estimated 20 000 nursing pups have been clubbed
to death since the official start of the Namibian 2006 Seal
harvest season granted by the Minister of Fisheries and
Marine Resources on 1 July.
And with approximately 630 baby seals and bulls clubbed,
stabbed and shot to death daily in what has been dubbed the
biggest and cruelest hunting the world. International
animal rights groups are outraged and pushing for an end to
the slaughter.
Seal Alert-SA is supported in this call to "End the Last
Baby Seal
Hunt on Earth" by over 12 million supporters from
organizations and
Individuals in over 140 countries around the world.
An anti-seal cull demonstration staged outside the Namibian
Embassy in London, coupled by glaring headlines and images
of sealers swinging their clubs against the heads of the
innocent printed in international media, is marring
Namibia's image.
The actual ‘official’ figures of the cull is unknown,
according to Hugo who has been dubbed the "seal man" but he
reckons that if the Ministry is to reach its quota of 85
000 by Nov 15, then they must kill at least 630 seals every
day - and by this week the death toll on nursing pups will
be at least 20 000.
Making mention to Albert Brink who runs the Cape Cross
culling operation, Hugo called Brink a “killer” in one of
his emotional outbursts, saying. “The man is a killer of
nursing baby seals - that is not "sealing" and he should be
ashamed of himself”.
Meanwhile Brink a Namibian seal concessionaire cancelled an
interview with the Observer reporter at short notice who
requested a tour of the factory and comment on the sealing.
He is the owner of a high tech Sea Lions factory at Henties
Bay, which markets products made
from the thousands of seals killed each year at the coast.
With the export of different parts, as well as an
abbetoire and processing plant with laboratories for the
bottling and manufacturing of oils, capsules, creams and
cosmetics, a tannery, a shoe factory, a leatherwear
factory, a canning factory, a research laboratory, he has a
thriving business.
Brink
was behind the increased sealing quota of 60 000 to 85 000
to meet the demands of the industry.
"We must
look at the sustainability of the industry and view it as
another type of farming," he said. "I mean
what is the problem - we are killing sheep and cattle every
day - so why not seals."
“I’ve been dealing with this for 20 years, and the whole
thing is blown out of proportion by the media,” said Brink
adding. “Just go to an abattoir and see how much blood
there is - why just because it is a bunch of seals, is
there such a commotion,” Brink told the reporter over the
phone.
Hugo slammed this saying seals are wildlife and their
plight of starvation and annual clubbing reflects a long
sad tale of mismanagement, abuse and interference with
nature's balance.
He said that Brink is making money out of the country’s
natural resources and only thinks of his pocket, nothing
else. “How can you compare the clubbing of thousands of
seals to the cattle industry,” he stated.
“Firstly a sheep farmer buys his land and sheep, pays for
their feed and medication, plus breeds them for this
purpose and then kills them in a Controlled way (not even
sheep breed for slaughter gets clubbed over the head - no
farmer in his right mind kills his nursing baby calves) why
-because he would go out of business.
"Seals are not bred
to be slaughtered
they are wildlife"
“Seals are protected marine mammals, who belong to
everybody and are not there for just for Brinks financial
greed," he slammed. "And seals are not bred to be
slaughtered they are wildlife.
“If Brink, wants to slaughter seals, buy some land, fence
it, buy seals, feed them, medicate them, be responsible for
any disease out-breaks - keep them confined.
“If he can then run a profitable business on these terms
alone - good for him.
“But till then seals belong to everybody and everyone will
have a say in how they are protected and killed.
“I am only getting started, but I am going to put an end to
Namibia’s seal culling for once and for all,” said Hugo.
"Namibia is the only sealing country to still kill
commercially baby nursing seal pups and we must end it
now."
On July 1, Namibia started its annual harvest of 85 000
pups and 6000 bulls.
Minister Abraham Iyambo of the Namibian Fisheries and
Marine Resources has stated that seals are harvested in
Namibia in accordance with Article 95 (1) of the
Constitution which requires the State to adopt policies
aimed at "the utilization of living natural resources on a
sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians".
The Namibian 2006 seal pup production is according to
Minister Iyambo is 27% below pre-1993 population levels and
this year's TAC (Total Allowable Catch) pup quota is 68%
higher than 1994 quota.
Since Namibia's independence in 1990 - the Cape fur seals
in Namibia have experienced mass die-offs from starvation
and or disease in 1994, 1995, 2000
and 2001, and in 2006 and claims are made that the
population has still not recovered.
Meanwhile the Clubbing season which ends in November to
make sure the quota for 2006 of 85 000 nursing pups and 7
000 bulls is filled is in full swing at Cape Cross as well
as the restricted areas of Wolf and Atlas Bay.
The
Observer reporter spoke to a Simon Pope from a large animal
rights organisation presently visiting the country who
previously visited Cape Cross during the culling season.
Explaining in gruesome detail how it works. "It's not a
pretty sight". And to quote him he said. "The animals are
chased into a corridor by two groups of clubbers who bash
away at these creatures heads - hopefully to cause instant
death - but I doubt that always.
"You can imagine how accurate the blows must be after
swinging that club for a couple of hours - their arms get
pretty tired I am sure," he said cynically.
"This is still considered the cruelest method by world
standards - and when they have finished their nasty
business they cover the blood splattered beach sand with
more sand so the tourists can walk in and view the lovely
seal colony.
"I had the misfortune of stepping into one of these freshly
covered area's and was up to my ankles in blood. Many
people in Europe won't come to a place where the people are
hammering their animals to death, so it must have an effect
on the country's tourism I am sure."
