U.S. Humane Society calls for Canadian seafood boycott

The U.S. Humane Society has called for a boycott of Canadian seafood products as a means of pressuring Ottawa to cancel the annual seal hunt.

"This is a hunt for baby seals, for their skins, which are sold in the fashion markets in Europe," Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society told a news conference in Washington.

The call for a boycott comes the same day as the start of "country-of-origin" labelling on seafood products sold in the U.S. It is supposed to allow consumers to know where the product they're buying comes from.

Already several American restaurant chains have pledged to honour the boycott.

The U.S. imports about $3 billion worth of Canadian seafood products every year.

But Terry Colli, a spokesperson for the Canadian Embassy in Washington, says the seal hunt is the only industry for many aboriginal people in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Hunters are expected to have taken more than 300,000 pelts by the time the spring hunt ends in mid-May.

Federal fisheries officials say the population of seals is estimated at about five million.

Activists claim the hunt is needlessly cruel.