reer and widened Disney’s audience.Splashrepre-
sented an endeavor by Disney’s Touchstone Studios
to attract teens and young adults to its films. People
flocked to the production, which grossed over $69
million and made Hannah an American idol.
Further Reading
“Hannah, Daryl.” InCurrent Biography Yearbook 1990,
edited by Charles Mopritz. New York: H. W. Wil-
son, 1991.
Martindale, David. “Daryl Hannah: Still Making a
Splash.”Biography6, no. 1 (January, 2002): 66-72.
Prince, Stephen.A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood Under
the Electronic Rainbow, 1980-1989. Berkeley: Uni-
versity of California Press, 2002.
Cynthia J. W. Svoboda
See also Auel, Jean M.;Blade Runner; Film in the
United States.
Harp seal hunting
Definition Traditional Canadian hunting activity
Animal-rights activists increased their opposition to the Ca-
nadian practice of hunting harp seals in the early 1980’s.
Their protests and acts of civil disobedience brought inter-
national attention to the issue.
In the northwest Atlantic, the Canadian harp seal
hunt is an annual spring ritual that has long been a
factor in the maritime economy, which benefits from
trade in the animals’ valuable oils and pelts. The
young pups are usually killed by clubbing. Led by
longtime activist Paul Watson, the environmental ac-
tivist group Greenpeace started to send protesters
against this commercial hunt in 1976, and in 1977
Watson garnered media attention by bringing along
film star Brigitte Bardot, as well as by getting physi-
cally beaten by a group of the sealers as he peacefully
tried to stop one of their ships. In 1979, Watson and
others sprayed harmless red dye on over one thou-
sand harp seal pups to make their pelts unmarket-
able. For this offense, the Canadian government im-
prisoned Watson briefly in 1980 and forbade him
from entering eastern Canada, but he defied this pa-
role order and returned to the ice floes off Canada
in 1981, this time using blue dye to disrupt the hunt.
The conflict escalated in 1983, as Watson’s boat,
Sea Shepherd II, effectively blocked the harbor of
St. John’s, Newfoundland, delaying the hunt and
sharply lowering that year’s take. This action was fol-
lowed by pitched battles with the Canadian Coast
Guard and sealers off Nova Scotia. Watson and his
crew were caught and sent to prison. Media footage of
sealers clubbing pup after pup to death garnered
widespread sympathy for the protesters around
the world, and in 1984 the European parliament
banned the import of Canadian baby harp seal pelts.
This ban collapsed the market for the pelts and led
the Canadian government to ban vessel-based seal
hunting, although it still allowed more limited, land-
based hunting. In 1984, the Quebec Court of Appeals
overturned the conviction of Watson, and the Cana-
dian Supreme Court upheld that ruling in 1985.
Impact The harp seal hunt abated in the later
1980’s, as the market for seal pelts shrank dramati-
cally, but the practice was never completely aban-
doned. In later years, the hunt was resumed, as new
markets for seal products opened in the 1990’s. As
the hunt increased, so too did protests and actions
designed to prevent it.
Further Reading
Nadeau, Chantal.Fur Nation.New York: Routledge,
2001.
Watson, Paul.Seal Wars: Twenty-Five Years on the Front
Lines with the Harp Seals.Richmond Hill, Ont.:
Firefly Books, 2003.
Scot M. GuenterSee also Aboriginal rights in Canada; Business
and the economy in Canada; Environmental move-
ment; Europe and North America; Fashions and
clothing.Hart, Gary
Identification U.S. senator from 1975 to 1987 and
a presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988
Born November 28, 1936; Ottawa, Kansas
Senator Gar y Hart of Colorado pursued the Democratic
Party’s presidential nomination twice in the 1980’s. His
second effort ended in scandal, when, in 1987, he was pho-
tographed with a young woman sitting on his lap on a ship
namedMonkey Business.
Gary Hart graduated in 1958 from Bethany Naza-
rene College. He earned a divinity degree from YaleThe Eighties in America Hart, Gary 443