Canadian culture begins with wildlife and forests. Many different ways of living in the regions of Canada impact cultural outlook. The main problem with wildlife viewing involving cultural acts is seal hunting. Seal hunting has continued for years and harms many of the seas' natural inhabitants. The Gulf of St. Lawrence in the Maritimes is a popular location for such activities. In the Maritimes the exploration of a day in the life of a seal and a hunter and its effect on culture in the Maritimes is described. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence each year they open a hunt for sealers to allow them to preform there are duties to destroy the cultural wildlife of the sea in the Maritimes. During this time of the season you can see many different ships of various sizes traveling through the ice looking for their prey. They are usually known as commercial sealers. Most of the prey is harp seals and hooded seals. When they reach the seals, they continue their work by shooting any seal in sight, young, old or even seals carrying baby seals. It is a very difficult situation to imagine when defenseless animals flee from their hunters. Seals escape and may continue on, but those that are hit and injured usually go unnoticed and eventually suffer and die. To kill wounded seals at close range, hunters use the hakapik, a large wooden club with an ice pick at the end for dragging. They also club wounded seals immobile. After the seal is killed, the captors take their hakapik pickaxe and put it back in the seals to transport it aboard their ships. That's when the seal is skinned, sometimes while it's alive. The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans is not big enough to do… mid-paper ownership businesses… and even commercial ownership businesses would suffer anyway. The sticks used might be acceptable if they were used in a humane way, like the way Aboriginal people used them to hunt for survival, not for commercial slaughter or wealth. DFO says they closely monitor all aspects of the seal hunt. from issuing licenses to hunters, to examining the duties of seal hunters, to port inspections, to inspections at purchasing and processing facilities. But this actually shows that DFO has issued more fines to other animal rights groups than to seal industry hunters. This changed many people's minds about the nature of the DFO's tasks. Since the DFO has decided to fine the hunters and prevent them from hunting beyond their quota, they continue to do what they want without any consequences for them..