The Queen’s representative in Canada has delighted locals and outraged campaigners by eating a chunk of raw seal heart cut freshly from a victim of the annual hunt.

Michaëlle Jean, the Governor General of Canada, helped gut the mammal in front of television cameras before slipping a slice of heart into her mouth and announcing that it tasted like raw fish.

As she wiped the blood from her fingers, she said that it was delicious. “It’s like sushi,” she said. “And it’s very rich in protein.”

Ms Jean, who arrived in Canada as a refugee from Haiti 40 years ago, was appointed by the Queen in 2005. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said today: “We’re not offering any comment on her actions but her position remains the same – she is still the Governor General.”

Earlier this month, the European Parliament voted to endorse an EU ban on seal products in protest against commercial hunting methods. Asked whether her provocative snacking was a message to Europe, Ms Jean replied: “Take from that what you will.”

The Governor General was meeting hundreds of Inuit at a community festival in Rankin Inlet in Nunavut on Monday when she joined in the seal butchery using a traditional ulu blade to slice the meat off the skin.

After cutting through the flesh, she turned to the woman beside her and asked: “Could I try the heart?”

The act has surprised most Canadians, but it would be considered normal among the aboriginal community in northern Canada and Greenland.

The new EU rule offers narrow exemptions so that these Inuit communities can continue their traditional hunts, but bars them from large-scale trading of their pelts and other seal goods in Europe.

A spokeswoman for Stavros Dimas, the EU Environment Commissioner, refused to acknowledge the challenge last night. “No comment; it’s too bizarre to acknowledge,” she said

Animal rights groups believe that Canada’s annual seal hunt is cruel, poorly monitored and provides little economic benefit. Barbara Slee, an anti-seal hunt campaigner at the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Brussels, said she was disgusted by Ms Jean’s actions.

“The fact that the Governor General in public is slashing and eating a seal, I don’t think that really helps the cause, and I’m convinced that this will not change the mind of European citizens and politicians,” she said.

Jack Troake, a Newfoundland sealer, said: “That’s great stuff ... You’ve got some of these environmentalists that are going to jump on her, but I think she’s strong enough. She can take that, I think.”

The Canadian Government maintains that the 350-year-old commercial hunt is sustainable and crucial for the 6,000 North Atlantic fishermen who rely on it for up to 35 percent of their annual income.

Ottawa authorised the killing of 338,000 seals this year, insisting that the hunt does not threaten the species. But a slump in pelt prices has meant fewer hunters on ice floes off Canada’s Atlantic coast. Fewer than 65,000 seals were expected to be killed, generating a mere £4.2 million for sealers, according to a fisheries spokesman.

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