WASHINGTON (AP) – The Humane Society of the United States is asking American restaurants and consumers to boycott Canadian seafood to pressure that government to stop the annual seal hunt.

The announcement of the boycott Monday coincided with the start of country-of-origin labeling for seafood products sold in the United States, which will let shoppers know where seafood comes from.

Legal Sea Foods, a 31-restaurant chain based in Boston, and Down East Seafoods, a distributor to about 200 outlets, have joined the boycott. The Humane Society has urged more than 5,000 U.S. seafood distributors to follow suit.

The hunt, which animal rights activists say is needlessly cruel, has been the target of protests since the 1960s. When this year’s hunt began last week, thousands of sealers armed with clubs, rifles and spears clashed with protesters arriving by helicopter.

Canada says the decades-long practice brings badly needed income to impoverished fishing communities, primarily from pelt sales to Norway, Denmark and China. The United States bans imports of seal products.

“It’s a livelihood for many of the aboriginals in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Terry Colli, a Canadian embassy spokesman.

“They don’t have much in the way of an alternative economic endeavor.”

Canada accounted for the largest share of U.S. seafood imports in 2003, about $3.1 billion, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org