Protesters reach seal hunt after paperwork delay

The conservation ship Farley Mowat in the seal nursery off Canada's east coast. File picture / Sea Shepherd

Conservationists have sailed into Canada's annual seal kill after spending four days freeing their ship from bureaucracy.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's ship Farley Mowat was forced to remain in Halifax, on Canada's east coast, while the society satisfied Canadian government demands for an International Oil Pollution Certificate.

Captain Paul Watson, president of the society, said his crew was forced to build a waste oil tank and pump system to obtain the certificate.

He said this had not been a requirement prior to the ship's arrival in Halifax.

Watson said he requested the documents demanded many times and each time was told such documents were not issued to vessels registered as yachts.

Watson accused Canadian media of implying that his ship had been cited for pollution when the issue was simply one of requirements for documentation.

He said Farley Mowat had a perfect record of safety and pollution prevention.

Steve Bone, area manager for Transport Canada in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, denied the conservation group was being harrassed.

"This is all about safety and preventing marine pollution,'' he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

There are 30 crew aboard Farley Mowat including volunteers from ten countries.

Television star Richard Dean Anderson, of the 1980s television series MacGyver and Stargate SG-1, was scheduled to join the ship today.

Farley Mowat sailed from Halifax on March 5 (NZ time) and is now in the nursery zone where 325,000 seals will be clubbed to death on the ice floes.

Canada plans to kill 975,000 baby and adult harp seals and 30,000 adult hood seals over a three-year period from 2003-2005.

Watson said his group planned to expose "what the Canadian government would like to keep hidden".