Commercial seal hunters from P.E.I., New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will, weather permitting, be back out on the ice Monday, after federal officials reopened the season.

'The ice has been a rather large impediment.'— Luke Legere, DFO

The season opened last Sunday, but was shut down by the Department Fisheries and Oceans not long afterwards because officials believed the quota of 1,300 seals had been killed.

DFO has since determined only about 1,000 seals have been landed.

Officials said ice will be a continuing problem as sealers return to the hunt.

"The ice has been a rather large impediment, you know, contrary to what it was in previous years. I mean, for the past two years we didn't have any ice," said DFO spokesman Luke Legere.

"It seems this year we've gone from one extreme to the other where there's too much ice.  It's very hard-packed, very thick, so it's made things really difficult for the fishers to actually get to where the seal herds are."

One P.E.I. boat is taking part in the commercial seal hunt, along with two aboriginal boats from P.E.I., which are licensed separately.

Hunters from Îles de la Madeleine, Que., are also expected to continue their hunt this week. The Quebec season started earlier, but hunters stayed home voluntarily last week after four sealers died when their boat capsized while being towed by the coast guard in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.