KEY POINTS:
Environmental activists who thwarted Japan's whale hunt have promised to employ similar tactics to disrupt Canada's annual seal hunt, which began yesterday.
Paul Watson, head of the American-based International Sea Shepherd Society, says he and other members of his group will document what they describe as the "perverse abomination" of the seal hunt.
One of the three original founders of Greenpeace, Watson set up Sea Shepherds as a group of "eco pirates" in 1977, after deciding "bearing witness to environmental damage is an inadequate response".
The Shepherds have been highly effective with their policy of sinking or sabotaging vessels involved in illegal whaling, and the group is now disowned by Greenpeace. Watson said his boat, the Farley Mowat, would remain outside Canada's 20km territorial limit but it would be an international incident if Canadian authorities tried to board the ship.
Canada's Fisheries Minister has threatened Watson with prosecution and warned him to steer clear, saying Canada would not be bullied or blackmailed into forcing out people who depended on the sealing industry for their livelihood.
He described the Sea Shepherd Society as an extremist organisation jeopardising the safety of seal hunters.
Canada has given the green light for 250,000 seals to be culled this year and the authorities claim the harp seal population is "healthy and abundant" as 16 vessels headed to the ice floes in the southern Gulf of the St Lawrence.
Animal rights groups are receiving observer permits and expect to monitor the hunt which they argue is cruel, difficult to monitor, ravages the seal population and does not provide much money for sealers.
Welfare groups and media had earlier claimed they had been prevented from monitoring Canada's annual commercial seal hunt.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said representatives waiting for permits to monitor the hunt were told they wouldn't be distributed until it has already started.
Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans also refused to hand out permits to members of the media until the hunt was under way.
Robbie Marsland, UK director of IFAW, accused the Canadian Government of trying to "censor" the hunt.
"We can't help but wonder why, at the same time the Canadian Government is claiming so-called 'new' regulations will make the hunt more humane, it is anxious to censor the hunt and stop the world from seeing what really happens.
"We can only assume that with international pressure growing for an end to the hunt, the Canadian Government has something to hide."
The IFAW, which monitors the hunt each year, claims animals can be skinned alive, impaled on steel hooks while conscious, or shot in the water and left to drown.
The pups, under three months old, are used in luxury fur products for the fashion industry.
The British Government has also repeated its opposition to the hunt, and ministers have written to the European Commission calling for an EU-wide ban.
