Dear Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell,

The United States is currently enforcing a ban on seal products. It is not having the
stated effect of saving these animals from cruelty, but is instead doing major harm to the Inuit
communities for whom seal hunting is a lifeblood. Seal hunting is a tradition that has sustained
Inuit people in the Arctic forever. It is now more necessary than ever to continue a tradition
which can help fight off the oil and gas industries, the unhealthy food that is shipped into these
places, and high rates of poverty. Banning seal products in the United States drastically reduces
the market for seal skins, and therefore the price of skins goes down and the economic hit on
Inuit hunters and their communities is devastating.
Seal products have been banned since the activism of environmental groups, like
Greenpeace and The Sea Shepards, was successful in convincing legislators the sealing
industry is cruel and unnecessary. This might be true of the commercial Seal hunts that take
place in southern Canada, but those do not account for the majority of sealing, which is carried
out by Inuit hunters. Baby seals are not hunted, contrary to many of the images spread by
advocacy groups, and the seals are killed very quickly. Most importantly though, every part of
the seal is used, and they are a nutritious food source in a place where shipping in food is
extremely expensive. But hunting seals requires money for fuel and other supplies, and when
hunters are not able to afford these costs from what they make off of seal skins, the hunt is not
possible.
Environmental groups have even occasionally admitted that the reason for the focus on
seal hunting is not because of the great ecological devastation of the hunt, but that it is a very
effective fundraising technique. Harp seals, the ones hunted, are not endangered and their
populations have remained stable along with Inuit hunting. Environmental organizations use the
image of cute seals because they’re moving to lots of people who will donate to them, the
organizations know this and use it to their advantage. What is doing much more environmental
damage in the Arctic than seal hunting is the oil and gas industries, and when seal hunting is
made a non-viable way to make a living, those industries are often the only other option. When
seal hunting is able to bring in enough money to sustain itself, these communities are not
brought into the hands of oil and gas, and are able to more effectively fight back against the
damage those industries are doing in the region.
Here in Washington, we might seem very disconnected to the seal hunts of the Arctic,
but a similar story of the struggle to revive a traditional hunt can be seen here, in the Makah
tribe’s fight for their right to hunt whales. The Makah are a small community in the most westerly
part of Washington for whom whale hunting is an integral part of their culture, and has been so
since time immemorial. So imagine the scene when environmental activists, people who’s
connection to these animals has been built through intellectual arguments, show up and start
lambasting the Makah hunters and saying they know better than them. It is hard to understand
how these protesters do not feel extremely embarrassed. That out of everything wrong with the
world what you’ve chosen to attack is Indigenous people practicing their culture is just insane.
Many of the same organizations fighting the Makah are also fighting Inuit hunting, like the Sea
Shepards. The same ones who take advantage of the images of cute seals to raise funds. We,
those not in communities like the Makah or the Inuit, should stand in solidarity with them and
their desire to carry out these hunts.
Often legislators voting for actions like the banning of seal hunting or products include
exceptions for the Inuit. This is the case in the EU ban, but these are not done in full respect of
how Inuit sealing works. These exceptions treat Inuit communities as if they are stuck in time
and can survive purely from sealing for their own use. The fact is, money is a necessity to
survive anywhere, just as much in tiny communities in the Arctic as anywhere else. Seals are
still very important for the diet of Inuit communities and this is a very important reason to support
seal hunting, but money is necessary for the hunt to continue as well. Shipping anything to
these places has to be done by plane, and so the price of anything shipped is much higher than
it is anywhere else. This is true of things like gasoline, which has become a necessity for
sealing, and is among the main expenses of living in the Arctic. This is part of why sealing has
had to adapt, and hunters now sell the skins to make the money needed to go on hunting.
No community lives in a vacuum, and neither do traditions. Seal hunting is not just a
practice carried out for subsistence any longer but how Inuit communities can sustainably
interact with the modern economy. To do this they need the barriers like the American ban on
seal products to be lifted.