Arrested seal hunt protester released

A former New Zealand resident was released last night after being arrested during a clash with sealers in Canada, an American-based environmental organisation said today.

Canadian Lisa Shalom and the 10 other crew members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat were arrested yesterday while trying to take pictures of seals being killed.

The society said seven of the crew, including Ms Shalom, were physically assaulted on the ice by eight sealers carrying clubs and pick axes. The sealers were not arrested.

The crew members were taken to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, where Ms Shalom was released last night.

The society said the 10 others -- whose nationalities were American, Swedish, British and Dutch -- were expected to appear in a Charlottetown court later today.

Anti-seal hunt protesters are required to keep at least 10 metres from sealers.

Ms Shalom's former partner in Auckland, Simon Oosterman, said she spent about two years in Wellington and Auckland before returning to Canada last year.

Canada's harp seal hunt, the target of protests since the 1960s, began earlier this week when thousands of sealers headed for the ice floes off eastern Canada.

The seal hunt, the largest in the world, brings in millions of dollars for poor coastal communities, but is condemned by animal rights activists as barbaric.

- NZPA