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Say it with seal: A senior's party celebrates flipper pie and sealskin pins

The main room at the Alderwood Retirement Centre in Witless Bay is lined with seniors.

Some in wheelchairs, others with walkers, but most sitting back enjoying presentations at a 'love your seal' themed Valentine's party.

During the Q&A sessions, sealer Stephen Miller talks about how he prepares for each year's hunt. "We do 99 per cent of our hunting now with rifles," he said.

Todd O'Brien/CBC
Todd O'Brien/CBC

"Local markets are a big driver in our industry now. As a sealer, everywhere you go these days you see people with sealskin boots and hats, scarves and purses. It makes you proud as a sealer and a Newfoundlander to see that in your hometowns."

Miller added that international markets for seal meat and products is at a low point.

Big demand for sealskin products

Margie Ryan is here showing off her sealskin wares. She started working with sealskin five years ago and her pins, purses, headbands — and even a coat for dogs, have been in demand.

"People started calling me, they wanted pins," said Ryan. "I made a poinsettia and I have the shamrock for St. Patrick's Day. The rabbit for Easter was really popular last year."

Todd O'Brien/CBC
Todd O'Brien/CBC

Today, she's made sealskin hearts for each senior to pin to their shirts.

Senior Theresa Bowen grew up in a lighthouse in Point La Haye some 60 years ago when sealing helped sustain life.

She said back then, winters were really hard. When the ice would come in her father would go out with a gun and bring back what he shot.

"Everybody in the community would come and line up and get seal. So we had seal at least three times a week. It was good, delicious," Bowen said.

Colemans, a Newfoundland-owned grocery chain, has a sign at one end of the room declaring it a "Proud supporter of the sealing industry."

Todd O'Brien/CBC
Todd O'Brien/CBC

Along with a display of their sealskin products, they're providing a meal of flipper pie to the residents.

Judy Bennett is with the public relations department at Colemans. She says the biggest challenge about selling seal products has been educating the public that it is a sustainable product.

"There are millions of seals out there and the product that you can harvest today can be of very good quality, very edible," Bennett said.

So we had seal at least three times a week. It was good, delicious. - Teresa Bowen

"The products that you make with seal skin are beautiful. We Newfoundlanders and worldwide, we need to do more to purchase these products and support the sealing industry."

While there's plenty of love for the sealing industry here, it's an industry that's fallen on hard times.

The numbers of sealers taking part in the hunt each year is a small fraction of days when markets were good and prices for pelts were higher.

Todd O'Brien/CBC
Todd O'Brien/CBC

'Still seeing us as killing the whitecoats'

Sealer Stephen Miller commented that people around the world are "still seeing us as killing the whitecoats and the baby seals, which is actually not true."

"Unless we can change that somehow I really don't thing the worldwide market is going to change on it."

At 40 years of age, Miller is one of the youngest commercial sealers around. The federal government stopped issuing commercial sealing licences 16 years ago.

As a sealer, everywhere you go these days you see people with sealskin boots and hats, scarves and purses. - Stephen Miller

Under the rules, Miller's 13-year-old son isn't allowed on his longliner during the hunt.

"When I was his age I could get aboard the boat with my father and my grandfather and go out and at least observe the hunt," Miller said.

That's a sentiment echoed by crafter Margie Ryan.

"Let their sons go with their fathers and let them be seal hunters if they want to be," she said.

"Everyone should get after the federal minister of fisheries and say it's time to open it up. The seals are eating our fish."

Todd O'Brien/CBC
Todd O'Brien/CBC

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