MoreBeach.com

July 1, 2009 - Canadian chefs are cooking up controversy in Montreal serving entrees with seal. Seal is being offered on menus in different ways such as steak, pepperoni, tartare and pan seared with cranberry sauce. The dark red meat is said to taste like beef with a hint of fish. Seal hunting (and serving on menus) is illegal in the USA and in Europe, where there have been strong protests against hunting seals for fur. Some chefs have even received death threats.

Canada allows two seal hunts each year: a small one by Inuits in the Arctic, mainly a subsistence hunt for food, and a much larger commercial hunt, primarily for fur, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In the St. Lawrence hunt fishermen are allowed to kill 280,000 seals out of a herd that Canadian officials estimate at 5.6 million. About 15,800 Canadians hold seal hunting licenses.

Here's the full story from Micheline Maynard for the NY Times.