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NUNAVUT - Leslie Ashevak, 34, is a generous hunter. When he comes back to Clyde River after a successful seal hunt, he often gives skins away to family and neighbours.

He also makes sure to set aside a skin or two to be used as currency during harder times.

"Once in a while, if hunting is plenty up here, I normally give away and if it's not that plenty I keep it for myself so my girlfriend can take the blubber out and dry it and sell it," Ashevak said. "So, if we have nothing to eat and we keep that skin until we run out of food or something, we'll sell that skin to the wildlife office to buy some groceries."

Ashevak said he usually receives about $50 for a good quality adult sealskin, money he can use to buy food for his girlfriend and three sons. Two litres of milk in Clyde River's Northern Store costs almost $8.

This use of sealskin as a savings account may soon change if the European Commission's proposed ban on seal products is approved by European parliament. The proposal, which was announced on July 23, calls for a ban on seal products from countries that practise what the European Union considers inhumane seal hunting.

Inuit hunters are to be exempted from the ban, but it is not clear what the exemptions are, or what hunting practices are considered inhumane, according to Loyola Sullivan, the federal Ambassador for Fisheries Conservation.

"They haven't definitively said what meets the standard of humane killing at this time," Sullivan said.

A certification procedure, which could include furs being labelled with their country of origin, is one of the proposed methods of ensuring that only furs from approved countries enter the European Union, according to a press release.

Sullivan said he believes Inuit hunters may have to certify that their seals were caught in Nunavut by Inuit as part of the exemption. He added that Inuit hunts only account for about five per cent of Canada's sealing market, and an exemption from the ban would not necessarily help Inuit seal hunters.

"If Inuit can't sell their furs, the exemption is meaningless," Sullivan said. "If 95 per cent of the market collapses, it's not profitable to be that five per cent."

Environment minister Olayuk Akesuk said he is concerned about a repeat of the 1980s seal ban, when Europe banned the import of baby seal products. Inuit were given an exemption, but the market was devastated.

"Until we know how it's going to affect our sealing industry in Nunavut, we're scared that it's going to affect us the way it did in the 1980s," Akesuk said.

Ashevak said going hunting with his father and grandfather taught him to appreciate the animals he hunts, and that the seal hunting he does is always conducted humanely.

"I started hunting at a very young age they taught us to respect all animals, no matter if they're small or big," he said. "Up here we don't use bats or anything like that; we use rifles so it's more likely they die instantly."

Luckily, Ashevak is employed, but he said the situation could be disastrous for families who depend on seals of an essential means of income.

"For people who rely on sealskins, the ones who are unemployed, it will be very bad," he said.