Bont voor Dieren director Claudia Linzen said the pair had not sought permission to film the hunt 'as it was expected the Namibian government would not give such permission, because it supports seal hunting'.

Namibia's Ministry of Fisheries has set a quota of 86,000 seal pups and 6,000 bulls eligible for the hunt per year for three years starting in 2007 to contain a population of an estimated 650,000 seals.

Animal rights activists says the cull is inhumane and claim that it has led to a dramatic decrease in Namibia's seal population.

The Namibia government says that seal populations need to be controlled to protect fish stocks.

The fur, skin, meat, fat and genitals of the seals are all harvested and sold.