Tempers flare on opening day of seal hunt

A harp seal lays on a ice floe in the Gulf of St. Lawrence
Saturday, March 25, 2006.

Chris Morris and Kevin Bissett
Canadian Press
Saturday, March 25, 2006

CHARLOTTETOWN -- Protesters had to dodge flying seal guts
pitched at them by angry hunters as tempers flared on the first
day of Canada's East Coast seal slaughter.
News reporters and animal rights activists tried to get as
close as permitted to the hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but
their presence infuriated sealers as they hunted for scarce
animals on small, drifting ice pans.
At one point, a sealing vessel charged up to a small Zodiac
inflatable boat carrying reporters and protesters, and a
sealer flung seal intestines into the midst of the observers.
A second sealing boat swerved close to the Zodiac and the
sealers swore at the protesters.
Due to the early break up of the ice in southern parts of the
Gulf, hunters are using rifles to kill seals.
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