ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland sealers say a smaller ice pack this spring is making it easier to meet individual boat quotas this year -- and the price they're getting for pelts has improved.
Frank Pinhorn of the Canadian Sealers Association says the animals have been concentrating on the smaller floes, making it easier for hunters to get to them.
Pinhorn says so far they've taken about 60,000 seals out of an allowable quota of 330,000 and may kill another 12,000 before they're done in late May.
Buyers have been paying up to $25 a pelt -- more than double what they were fetching last year.
Forty-two large boats are working in the area known as the Front, between the Grey Islands and Newfoundland's northeast coast.
Several smaller inshore boats have also been participating in the hunt.
