Actress Pamela Anderson has requested a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss Canada’s seal hunt, adding her name to the growing list of celebrities who speak out against the annual hunt, which just got under way.

A top Canadian Inuit official defended his country’s seal hunt today, saying it was vital to the survival of aboriginal peoples in the Arctic and provided an economic lifeline for an area desperate for jobs and growth.

The opening days of Canada’s East Coast seal hunt were fraught with frustration, bad tempers and violent acts on the rapidly thinning ice of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.