The Canadian government lowered the number of animals that can be killed in this year's East Coast seal hunt, although it described the herd as healthy.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced on Thursday that sealers can take about 270,000 seals in the hunt, both in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off Newfoundland's northeast coast.

Sealers will be allowed to take about 270,000 animals in this year's East Coast hunt, a 17 per cent drop from 2006.
(CBC)

That represents a drop of about 17 per cent from the 2006 total allowable catch of 325,000 animals in the hunt, which draws strong protests each year from animal welfare groups.

Hearn said hunters along the northeast Newfoundland coast — home to the area called the Front, where about 70 per cent of seals are killed each year — will also be able to take an additional 19,000 seals, reflecting part of the 2006 quota that went unfilled when the hunt closed last year.

The start of the hunt in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence has been delayed because of poor ice conditions. Conditions on the northern area of the Gulf and along the Front were described Thursday as good.

In a backgrounder released Thursday, DFO said the harp seal population is at about 5.5 million animals.

"The Atlantic harp seal population is plentiful [and] nearly triple what it was in the 1970s," DFO said in a statement.

DFO has set 4.07 million animals as the benchmark of a healthy herd, with the next major harp seal population survey scheduled for 2009.