Escaping Central Park

These Harp Seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus) were photographed out on the ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off the Magdalen islands. A helicopter was needed to fly out and land on these ice floes to capture these images. These seals are hunted for their pelts, and in 2013, the Canadian government issued a kill quota of 400,000. The means to kill them involve striking the young pups on their skulls with a club so as to avoid damaging their pelts, which are used to make shoes, gloves, coats, rugs, and other textile related products. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list the Harp Seal as Least Concern, with an estimated population of 8 million. However, the IUCN states that the current kill quotas issued by the hunting nations is not sustainable.