7th July 2009

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Namibian seals marked for hunt

Namibia, one of the only countries in the world with a commercial seal hunt, will allow the annual cull to continue, despite the protests of animal rights groups.

90,000 seals are expected to be clubbed, and 85,000 of them will be pups, says the AP.

The Namibian fisheries and marine resources ministry confirmed that the season began July 1 and will continue into November. Activists and Namibian officials continue to debate whether the huge number of seals taken is a necessary measure to curb population growth, or devastating to the environmental balance.

Activists Francois Hugo, who works with the group Seal Alert South Africa, said last week that he’d made a bid to buy out the company that buys the Namibian seal skins, which he seems to have believed would have destroyed demand.

Pains are taken to keep the hunt out of the public eye, in part to avoid upsetting tourists.

Tags sealshuntingNamibia