CBC is now reporting on the failure of Nunavut seal skins to move in
the auction at North Bay. The following has been added to the
existing CBC article re the Canadian delegation.

Nunavut seal skins fail at auction

Canadian fur officials are blaming the European Union's proposed
ban, as well as a waning global economy, on a poor showing for
Nunavut seal skins so far this year.

None of the 10,000 Nunavut seal pelts that went up for auction this
month had sold at the first auction of this year at Fur Harvesters
Auction Inc.'s auction house in North Bay, Ont.,

"The entire collection remains unsold," said Fur Harvesters Auction
CEO Mark Downey, adding that the auction house will have to slash
prices on the seal skins.

"We're looking at probably a 50 per cent price reduction to get the
thing started again," he said. "The whole thing's got to be
revitalized."

Nunavut government officials say they are exploring other options
for selling the furs, such as marketing them within the North.

"We have a number of local people who are taking seals," said Wayne
Lynch, director of fisheries and sealing with the Nunavut government.

"As well, we have interest in northern Quebec .… There's many
different areas that have contacted us for a hundred here or a
thousand there."

Northern buyers bought almost 2,000 seal skins in 2008, accounting
for about 25 per cent of total sales. Lynch said more marketing and
promotion could boost those numbers, and help Nunavut's hunters
avoid a complete collapse in the seal skin market.

Nunavut hunters have generally been paid an average of $50 per pelt.
Unless buyers come forward, Lynch said that price could drop.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/01/21/eu-seal.html?ref=rss