Sea Shepherd to oppose seal hunt in gulf after it starts Friday
March 26, 2008HALIFAX - Animal rights activist Paul Watson says he will head out to the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence next week to oppose the annual seal hunt.
Federal Fisheries officials say the commercial hunt is to begin in the southern gulf on Friday, with a much larger hunt off Newfoundland opening in April.
Watson says he and crew aboard the vessel Farley Mowat will monitor the hunt and register their opposition with sealers.
The decision comes as federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon is threatening Watson with prosecution if he takes his ship into Canadian waters.
In a letter to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Cannon says the ship doesn't meet international shipping standards.
But Watson says the vessel is registered under a Dutch flag and doesn't have to comply with standards for commercial ships because it is a yacht.
