The annual seal hunt was another asset in the Greenspond economy. The community's advantageous location, in the path of the northern ice floe, enabled land-based hunters using guns and nets to capture seals. By the early 19th century the seal hunt had become an important part of life at Greenspond. Historian Judge D.W. Prowse reported that in 1807 "from Bonavista and Greenspond 6 ships went to the ice with 64 men." He also reported that in the town of Greenspond itself 80 men took 17,000 seals in nets. In 1860, 18 vessels, each with a crew of about 20 men, prosecuting the seal hunt out of Greenspond. Because most of the crews and sealing captains were drawn from Greenspond and neighbouring communities, sealing ships would leave St. John's and Conception Bay in the fall of the year and anchor in Greenspond Tickle until spring when the hunt would begin. There was great pride in the accomplishment of local sealing captains, such as Darius Blandford who made the "quickest trip ever recorded" and Peter Carter who secured the heaviest load of seals in the history of the industry.