SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY CALLS FOR A BOYCOTT OF THE 2010 CANADIAN WINTER OLYMPICS TO PROTEST THE EAST AND WEST COAST SEAL HUNTS 

From Onboard the Sea Shepherd Flagship R/V Farley Mowat in Seattle, Washington, USA:

On July 2, 2003, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver-Whistler.

The games are scheduled for February 12-28 and March 12-21, 2010.

These dates fall at the exact time that the notoriously cruel largest marine mammal slaughter in the world takes place on the East coast of Canada - the annual slaughter of harp and hood seals. The quota for this year and 2004 is 350,000 seals, each year.

Between the times of the announcement of the Olympics being awarded to Canada and the end of the 2010 games, more than 2,450,000 seals will be clubbed and shot on the ice floes off the Canadian Atlantic coast.

The Olympics will be hosted by a the Province of British Columbia where the government is calling for a West coast slaughter of seals and sea lions and where hundreds of sea-lions are ruthlessly shot each year by ecologically destructive salmon farmers.

For this reason, Sea Shepherd USA, Sea Shepherd Europe, Sea Shepherd Australia & New Zealand, Sea Shepherd South Africa, Sea Shepherd Brazil, and Sea Shepherd Asia are calling for an international boycott of the 2010 Canadian Winter Olympics.

"We are looking at an advertising campaign depicting seal clubbing and seal shooting as an Olympic event. The Newfoundland sealers have a game called head hockey where they use a baby seal's head instead of a puck. These games will provide us with an international peg to hang our message that the cruel, wasteful, economically insignificant slaughter of seals must end." Said Captain Paul Watson, the Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society anticipates that many other organizations opposed to sealing will utilize the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics as a forum to publicize, expose and provoke international outrage over Canada's shameful seal slaughter.

For further info contact Captain Paul Watson paul@seashepherd.org Telephone: 360-370-5650 (USA).