Newfoundland & Labrador - Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island - page 402

It's a five- to six-hour drive from Deer Lake at the peninsula's southern edge to
L'Anse aux Meadows at its northern apex. Towns and amenities are few and far between
so don't wait to fuel up.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Deer Lake
There's little in Deer Lake for the visitor, but it's an excellent place to fly into for trips up
the Northern Peninsula and around the west coast.
Those looking for B&B comfort can hunker down at plain-and-simple Auntie M's Lu-
cas House ( 709-635-3622; www.lucashousebb.net ; 22 Old Bonne Bay Rd; r $65-75; May-
Sep; ) ; it's a five-minute ride from the airport. The biggest show in town is new,
88-room Holiday Inn Express ( 709-635-3232; www.ihg.com ; 38 Bennett's Ave; r $130-180;
) ; it's a 10-minute ride from the airport.
The visitors center ( 9am-7pm) and the DRL ( 709-263-2171; www.drl-lr.com ) bus
stop at the Irving gas station sit beside each other on Hwy 1. A taxi from the airport to
any of these spots costs about $10.
Deer Lake Airport (YDF; www.deerlakeairport.com ) is a stone's throw off Hwy 1. It's a
well-equipped little place with ATMs, food, free wi-fi and internet access, and a staffed
tourism desk. Flights arrive regularly from St John's, Halifax, Toronto and even London.
Avis, Budget and National are among the companies renting cars at the airport.
THE SEAL HUNT DEBATE
Nothing ignites a more passionate debate than Canada's annual seal hunt, which
occurs in March and April off Newfoundland's northeast coast and in the Gulf of St
Lawrence around the Îles de la Madeleine and Prince Edward Island.
The debate pits animal rights activists against sealers (typically local fishers who
hunt seals in the off-season), and both sides spin rhetoric like a presidential press
secretary. The main issues revolve around the following questions.
Are baby seals being killed? Yes and no. Whitecoats are newborn harp seals, and
these are the creatures that have been seen in horrifying images. But it's illegal to
hunt them and has been for 20 years. However, young harp seals lose their white
coats when the seals are about 12 to 14 days old. After that, they're fair game.
Are the animals killed humanely? Sealers say yes, that the guns and/or clubs
they use kill the seals humanely. Animal activists dispute this, saying seals are shot