ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Groups protesting Canada's commercial seal hunt have pulled out of Newfoundland, bringing an unusual calm to the annual slaughter despite fears it would be one of the fiercest in years.

Sealers and animal welfare activists had been bracing for potentially violent confrontations on the ice floes, but poor ice conditions and a lower harp seal quota combined to cool tempers in the most uneventful seal hunt in recent memory.

The last group of protesters left the province Sunday, said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, one of several organizations that observed this year's hunt.

"In the end, I think we were able to do everything that we planned to go there and do, and we believe that the evidence we got this year is just irrefutable," Aldworth said Monday from Montreal.

"It proves that whether seals are being clubbed or shot to death, this hunt is inherently cruel."

Protest groups were relegated to observing the hunt from further distances than they have in the past because of a lack of ice in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. They were only able to watch the hunt aboard helicopters required to stay 150 metres away from sealing vessels.

"Whereas we normally land on the ice floes and we proceed on foot over to where the sealing boats are operating, and you will see sealers killing literally hundreds and thousands of seals very, very quickly, this year you saw boats moving very slowly amongst the ice floes, killing one seal here and another seal a kilometre away," said Aldworth.

"I think, as a result, the whole thing was somewhat slowed down and perhaps because of that tempers amongst the sealers were a little bit cooled."

The hunt is continuing off the northeastern coast of Newfoundland in a region called the Front, where 70 per cent of this year's quota of 270,000 harp seals will be taken. But many sealing vessels have been hindered by thick sheets of ice blocking them in.

"Unfortunately, while we would love to be able to go up there and document the Front, the hunt occurs in too remote of a location for us to be able to do so by helicopter," Aldworth said.

Larry Yetman, resource manager with the federal Fisheries Department, agreed that a lack of ice in the Gulf played a role in reducing tensions between sealers and protesters.

The heavy ice north of Newfoundland, meanwhile, has kept sealers at bay, Yetman said.

"We had some boats stuck in the ice since the season opened and haven't been able to participate, so it's a bit of a mixed bag," he said.

Yetman said about two-thirds of the quota had been taken so far.

The first and only reported flashpoint of this year's hunt occurred on April 5, when a helicopter pilot hired by Aldworth was alleged to have frightened seals off the ice about 30 kilometres west of Rocky Harbour, N.L.

Aldworth denied the accusation.

There were several tense confrontations during last year's hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. At one point, sealers came close enough to a boatload of observers, including independent journalists, to fling seal guts at them.

Last year, the humane society also had difficulty getting helicopters refuelled and, at one point, some of their members were trapped in a hotel for several hours by angry local residents.

The humane society also faced a crowd of angry seal hunt supporters this year south of Port au Choix, N.L., at one point, but such confrontations have become annual routines, Aldworth said.

Animal welfare groups also lacked the star appeal this year that they enjoyed in the past when celebrities such as Brigitte Bardot, Pamela Anderson and Paul McCartney lent their voices to their cause.

This year's seal quota was down from 335,000 last year - a reduction due mainly to a lack of ice in the Gulf.

Newborn seals can't swim and need solid ice to survive in the first weeks of life.

Although hunters no longer kill the newborn whitecoats, the vast majority of seals killed in the hunt are between three and 12 weeks of age.

The federal government maintains the hunt is humane, sustainable and a much-needed source of income for fishermen in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

But animal welfare groups have long lobbied for the hunt to be banned, insisting it is cruel and of little economic benefit.

Canada's commercial seal hunt is the largest marine mammal hunt in the world. More than 6,000 Atlantic Canadians were actively involved last year.