CHARLOTTETOWN — A familiar scene is being played out on the ice floes off Eastern Canada as sealers and seal hunt opponents take up their positions and ready their clubs and cameras for another season of tension on the ice.

About 16 boats carrying roughly 100 hunters headed out Friday from Iles de la Madeleine toward a large herd of seals in the Cabot Strait between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

At the same time, animal rights activists from such organizations as the Humane Society of the United States and the International Fund for Animal Welfare took to the skies in helicopters to observe and document the controversial hunt.

Officials with the federal Fisheries Department said ice conditions are good this year in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where about 92,000 seals can be taken.

The largest part of the seal hunt begins in April off Newfoundland and Labrador, where sealers can kill about 183,000 animals.

"The hunt has officially opened but it's a very slow start," said Fisheries spokesman Phil Jenkins.

"There is very heavy ice. The vessels from Iles de la Madeleine are slowly trying to make their way to a herd in the Cabot Strait area."

Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States said bad weather kept helicopters grounded Friday afternoon, although several were airborne in the morning and able to spot the sealing vessels.

Aldworth said the Fisheries Department is making it difficult for hunt observers by issuing permits on a day-by-day basis, making it impossible for the observers to get an early start.

"It's very frustrating," she said.

"The Canadian government is telling the world there is a new humane way of killing seals in Canada. But at this point there is no video evidence as to how they are actually conducting themselves out there."

About 60 people have requested observer permits, which is slightly higher than last year's number of 42.