The China Post reported the ban on its website. It was passed by Taiwan’s legislative yuan as changes to its Wildlife Conservation Act covers marine mammals like seals, sea lions, sea otters, manatees and sea elephants, which are also known as elephant seals.
Taiwan had become the third-largest Asian consumer and the fourth in the world in terms of the consumption of marine mammals and their products, the newspaper reported.
Cape Breton sealer Robert Courtney saw the ban as more bad news for the industry, but it was hailed by the Humane Society International/Canada’s executive director Rebecca Aldworth.
“It is going to create more problems,” Courtney said.
“Hopefully it can pick up somewhere else and get through it.”
Courtney said seal products from Cape Breton hunters went to buyers in Newfoundland and some likely ended up in Taiwan.
He described the seal hunt as one of the most humane harvests of any animal in the country.
Aldworth said in a release the compassionate actions of the Taiwanese legislature will save countless seals and other marine mammals from “a horrible fate.”
