Seal hunting

Seal hunting -- an industry whose workers track down seals for their fur, meat, and oil -- is practiced in Canada (where most of the world's seal hunting occurs), Greenland, Namibia, Norway, and Russia. Seal populations went down dramatically when this business boomed and the harp seal went down to 1.5 million in the 1970s. Consequently, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans set the limit of caught seals to 270,000 per year. Hunters also can no longer kill the youngest baby seals. Thus, the number of seal deaths has been steadily decreasing.

Watch this year's graphic footage of the Canadian seal hunt.