There is still an overly romanticized perception of how Inuits in the arctic region live.
but here in Tasiilaq, Greenland, people live in a town with new homes
supermarkets and other modern amenities in a place where nothing grows however
some old traditions and methods of subsistence can't be abandoned easily
seal hunting is one of them you know I think I've done enough talk to two
little houses made I want to see them to repair that he'd know so far been a boon
I did some I did Gina you know New York they never gave me don't carry nothing
out I'm up in Utah hunting is an integral part of the local communities
tradition and nutrition seal meat is a major contributor to the local diet and
an important nutrient being rich in omega-3 and iron traditionally seal and
narwhal meat were the recipe for Inuit survival through the Arctic winters
even if they have experienced dietary transitions as part of a more modern
lifestyle seal remains a staple food and its products a source of income
traditional Inuit diets derive approximately 50% of their calories from
fat 30 to 35 percent from protein and only 15 to 20 percent of their calories
from carbohydrates apart from that many inhabitants of
Greenland and Arctic Canada lived from the sealskin trade yet this business
came into conflict with the surge of conservation and animal welfare
activities the seal hunting controversy has now been around for decades and is
probably one of the most emotionally charged conservation and animal rights
issues it all started with a 1960s CBC documentary showing disturbing pictures
of seals in Canada being clubbed to death which triggered a wave of
indignation conservation movements started to form demanding a complete ban
on hunting especially of seal pups
apart from the disturbing brutality of the images a specific biological factor
was brought into play seals in the Arctic have a think insulating layer of
blubber to help them survive in the freezing temperatures young pups also
known as white coats lack this layer instead using their characteristic white
pelts as protection until they shed them after three to five weeks
the demand for seal skin in Europe and North America was focused specifically
on these white coats which were wanted for fur production this particularly
endangered reproduction cycles and thus the entire species on the other hand
it's easy to win people over to your side with images of adorable baby seals
celebrities like please about dole got involved and pictures of them with cute
seal pups helped to make the topic popular
the hunting and trading of fur from seal pups under the age of three weeks was
banned in the 1980s this was a major win for conservation movements but
nevertheless the protests continued when that was adopted or after that had been
adopted after the European market was bad
the Canadian seal is just shifted to seals which are not white anymore and
but which are still technically pops because they're not sexually maturity
and so an idea you know for a lot of people including NGOs and also policy
makers there was two semantics you know and so it's like they still ops
essentially so in that sense that the seal pups directive that explicitly
mentioned white coats was not enough in 2009 the EU decided to implement a total
ban on seal products but not everybody was happy about that
okay for me terrifying hey dude you name it the McLin GPC could I talk to nigga
at booty oh dear that woody v8 again announced at a little talk to me
there are many do DVD chapter of Zima a marina that is from Fukui Atlanta hit
hard oh I don't we attorney I'm going am Munna visit them attack a ban on me I
get out of damn item it that word cringe PC could I got nose up to another from a
very realistic perspective that really doesn't work because first of all in
which are dependent on the market chains of the commercial ceilings the first are
being are being auctioned their options and they enter basically the commercial
market chains so when since and since there is no
labeling in place there is no way a distinguish between commercially hunted
seals and sealed seal skins from from Annoying
puns particularly when they have already gone through the processing stage
because you know them they're being dyed and being worked into other products and
so on you know and so it's very difficult to differentiate that those
and since there is no labeling system in place so when the now with the recent
ban when the markets of the of the European Union closed down the bias
didn't care whether the they were from from Inuit or not they just didn't buy
them anymore at all so it says since there is no labeling
system in place and so that was actually something that a you know a pretty hard
the debate always revolved around two sides of criticism the animal welfare
perspective on the one hand and the fight against excessive commercial seal
hunting by conservationists on the other but the point that is missed today is
that in reality these approaches are outdated
negative consequences of environmental impacts like climate change and water
pollution threaten Arctic seal populations on a much larger scale
at the beginning of the summer a dramatic image went viral
it showed dogs carrying a traditional Inuit sled across a field of melted sea
ice the picture taken by Stefan Olson shows one symptom of an alarming trend
with the average temperatures rising declining sea ice caps are a severe
threat to ice breeding seals in the Arctic region these seals are hugely
dependent on stable pack ice reduced sea ice availability and stability causes a
reduction of whelping areas and an increased risk of disease due to
overcrowding on whelping patches
recent studies also suggest that the reduction of the polar ice caps and a
projected increase in local shipping activity could have a severe impact on
the levels of pollution experienced across the entire Arctic region
it all goes to show that if we really want to protect these seals we need a
much more holistic approach we need to protect the environment as a whole to
safeguard the sea ice and preserve Arctic Wildlife's habitats