The ban takes effect in 2010, and has driven seal fur prices down 86 percent to $15 per skin. Northern Aboriginals are exempt from the ban based on rights to hunt for sustenance. Inuit leaders are counting on Canada's government to challenge the ban before the World Trade Organization.

With fewer hunters out on the ice only 65,000 seals were expected to be killed this year of Canada's 338,000 quota. Some 6,000 North Atlantic fishermen rely on the seal hunt for up to 35 percent of their annual income.

Many commercial hunters feel unfairly treated by the ban that will allow Europe's fisherman to cull seals for fish stock management and then sell the resulting seal products within the EU. Adult seals consume huge amounts fish on a daily basis - Canada's east coast seal population is now 6 million, three times what it was in the 1970s.