The Hunt... is on.

Though it may be a couple of months overdue, I was reminded of the annual seal hunt by our faithful friends in the media, who mentioned that our Governor-General Michaëlle Jean stands in solidarity with the Inuit on their right to hunt seal in the North Atlantic - at least that is how I understood the report; I can't tell where they're going with these stories half the time.

From what I gather, the Inuit have been hunting seal since they've been Inuit, primarily because their survival depends on it, so who are we to tell them to stop now? Case closed, right? Well, not so fast. If it was a matter of the right of the Inuit to hunt seal, this would not be an issue. I fear many proponents of the seal hunt are quick to use the Inuit as a convenient diversion from the real issue.

The seals are being hunted en masse for two reasons: (1) the fish they eat are a source of revenue; (2) the seals themselves are a source of revenue. Our fishing industry becomes vexed when these seals eat into their profits, so it dispatches its henchmen - decent working people trying to keep a roof over their families' heads and food on the table - to neutralize the threat. Subsequently, the fish survive, the trawlers catch them, and they end up on the market. Funny enough, the same people (more or less - I consider them the same people) make a killing (ha!) off of the seals they kill. Blubber? Meat? Pelts? Sure! Let's make a few more bucks!

If there is indeed a threat, it is not posed by the annual spring increase in the North Atlantic seal population, but rather the intrusion of industry in the name of income. In nature, there is harmony - a grand balance, if you will - and we are disrupting it, primarily in the name of personal gain. The Inuit recognize this, as did the remainder of the Aboriginal tribes before our forefathers decimated them. In the grand scheme of nature, there is a balance - that is to say, the net sum is always zero - things are born and things die. Conversely, in the grand scheme of profit, there is growth and only growth, at least that's what we are convinced is necessary for our survival. Of course, we are witnessing the consequences of such logic, given our teetering on the brink of what might be the worst economic collapse the likes of which we've ever seen - quite possibly the death of our economic model altogether, though in past instances, this has allegedly been a ploy by the super-rich to buy up all our assets at bargain-basement prices, but this time around, what resources will be left to buy, and will any of the locals let them? - so perhaps we ought to recognize this universal equipoise and right soon. This growth in profit has come at an insurmountable cost to our habitat, a debt that may take centuries, millennia, even millions of years to repay.

Like anything else, this is not simply a yea-or-nay issue; we must examine it in context before passing judgment. As usual, we draw a line in the sand - or, in this case, ice - and sort ourselves on either side, all the while sidestepping the actual issue: our messing with nature in the name of profit. I have no problem with the Inuit hunting seal, mainly because I trust them to know what they're doing.

As for the rest of us, I think we have much to learn.