Bloody Ice Analysis

“Bloody Ice” is an essay arguing against the mass slaughter of Harp Seals. The author reveals the legal limits for the amount of seals allowed to be killed each year as stated by the U.S. Seal Protection Act and pleads for the further reduction of those limits. The passage argues that the inevitable extinction of the animals and the inhumane methods by which they are killed are cause for severe regulations on seal hunting. In the conclusion of the paper, it is suggested that ranching the seals would reduce impact on seal population and cut down dependency on the seal industry. The essay starts off well, but generally lacks in persuasively arguing its point and is therefore ineffective as a whole. Before critiquing the overall ineffectiveness of the essay, there are individual effective elements that should be highlighted. One such element is the abundance of vivid imagery utilized in the beginning of the essay by the author to invoke emotion and empathy in the reader as well as to entice them to read further. The image of the ice “steaming from the remains of gutted carcasses” and stained blood red is gruesome and paints a negative picture of seal hunting that serves to help persuade the audience that the hunting is horrific and
The combination of vague or blatantly wrong statistics and the unwillingness to support their own opinion about inhumane slaughter leaves the reader disappointed. What seemed to be an interesting and powerful paper judging from the imagery in the first few sentences quickly became lackluster to say the least. The paper is therefore ineffective overall because it lacks the power to fully persuade and immerse the reader. The author would have been better off had they argued to end seal hunting altogether, or had their numeric evidence been more thoroughly