The Canadian government plans to bring charges against a conservation group which it said came too close to sealers as it protested against the country’s annual hunt.

A coastguard icebreaker and a ship owned by a conservation group collided today as tensions mounted over the annual Canadian seal hunt.

Divers searched the icy waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence for a missing seal hunter today after recovering the bodies of three other hunters from a fishing boat that capsized as it was being towed by a coast guard ship.