Canada is all set to launch the largest single seal hunt in half a century today, with the government allowing more than 300,000 seals to be killed - many of them in a 36 hour mass cull.
The hunting of young seals for their fur almost stopped off Canada's east coast 25 years ago in the face of international outrage.
But with fur again in fashion the hunt is back. Last year Canada increased the quotas again, allowing a million seals to be killed over the next three years.
Animal rights groups are hoping to sway international opinion against the hunt, but Canadian officials say it is now both humane and necessary.
The seal hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador withered 25 years ago as brutal images of men clubbing infant seals horrified the world.
The US banned imports of seal products in 1972 and the European Union followed suit a decade later with a ban on white pelt imports, taken from the youngest babies.
As a result, the Canadian government reduced quotas for seal hunting to as low as 15,000 annually - mainly for meat and local handicrafts.
The cull is now being conducted under tighter regulations and most seals are now shot, not clubbed, but the number of animals expected to be taken this year will be the highest in decades and once again it is drawing international attention.
PA