Three seal hunters have died after their fishing vessel capsized in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Two other men were rescued by another fishing boat, but a third is missing.

The 39-foot (12m) vessel reported steering problems late on Friday and was being towed by a Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker when it flipped.

It was said to be one of about 16 boats carrying 100 hunters that headed out from the Iles de la Madeleine in Quebec, steaming toward a large herd of seals in the Cabot Strait between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

Canada's annual seal hunt had a slow start on Friday, with boats hampered by thick ice.

This season the Canadian government is allowing hunters to kill up to 275,000 young harp seals on the ice floes off Eastern Canada.

It promised a more humane season this year, and advised hunters to make sure the animals are dead before they begin skinning them.

The hunting season always prompts a hard debate between anti-sealing groups, who say it is cruel and unsustainable, and those who believe that hunting is a legitimate harvesting of a small portion of the 5.5 million-strong seal herd in the region.

The United States, The Netherlands and Belgium have already banned the distribution of seal products and the European Union is considering a boycott because of humanitarian concerns.

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