An organization representing Canadian sealers is asking the federal government to put a mile, literally, between themselves and activists determined to end the controversial hunt.

The federal government is soliciting opinions on whether to double the current buffer of 10 metres between sealers and observers.

A seal hunter clashes with a protester in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in this April 2005 file picture.
(The Canadian Press)

The Canadian Sealers Association is proposing something far more dramatic: a distance of a mile, or about 1,600 metres.

"Our first preference is that there be no protesters out there at all," said association president Frank Pinhorn.

Tempers have flared more than occasionally between sealers and some activists over the years.

"It's only a matter of time before someone pushes the envelope a bit further than they should, [or] someone is going to make a mistake and do something that is unintentional," Pinhorn said.

"It could lead to a tragedy, and if that happened, then we would all be responsible."

Most of those who obtain observer permits belong to groups campaigning to end the annual hunt, which begins in a few weeks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and then opens later off Labrador and Newfoundland's northeast coast.

Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues with the Humane Society of the United States, opposes any change to the buffer.

"If they double this distance, it will make it difficult, and at times impossible, for us to film, and that includes journalists and parliamentarians who go out to film the hunt every year," Aldworth said.

Aldworth said observing what happens at the hunt is a charter freedom.

"If sealers have nothing to hide at the seal hunt, if the Canadian government has nothing to hide, no one should mind being filmed up there."

The deadline for comment on changing the so-called exclusion zone was Friday.

The issue now heads to federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn, who in the past has flatly ruled out calls to ban observers at the hunt.