Around 100 Canadian sealing boats trapped in ice

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Around 100 small boats carrying seal hunters were trapped by thick ice off Canada's Atlantic coast on Wednesday and at least one crew had to abandon ship, the Coast Guard said.

The boats were caught in the ice, and face damage or even sinking, as crews hunted the young seals off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, where most of the annual hunt takes place.

Reduced ice conditions further to the south meant this year's total quota had been cut back to 270,000 seals from 335,000 in 2006. The seals use the normally widespread ice floes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in the Atlantic Ocean to give birth to their young.

"Conditions have deteriorated over the last few days as a result of the wind pressing the ice floes into the land," Canadian Coast Guard Capt. Windross Banton told CBC television from an icebreaker trying to make its way to the stranded vessels, which included one from the Coast Guard.

"There's quite a few different pockets of vessels all about the area ... unfortunately the weather conditions forecast right up until the end of this week are probably going to cause conditions to even deteriorate more so than they are now," Banton said.

Separately, the CBC said some of the boats were running out of fuel and food. Seal hunter Gill Cadwell told the network that the ice floes had pushed his boat high out of the water for a time.

"I've never, ever experienced nothing like this," he said.

Activists say the hunt is cruel and unnecessary and should be stopped. A spokesman for the federal Fisheries and Oceans Department said about two-thirds of this year's quota had already been filled.