Inuit Seal Hunt

Joey tracks a seal from over a mile away. He patiently advances on it making sure not to scare it as he moves in for his shot. Over 20 minutes after he started his walking a shot echoes across the arctic.




Before entering the sled, I had never taken place in a hunt and have been separated from meat by butchers, supermarkets and restaurants in the South. It is appropriate that I only now start to respect the animals that have been slaughtered for my dinner table after seeing what is necessary for their harvest.

The Inuit seal hunt has gone on for thousands of years. It is an important part of their culture and the nutrition it provides has kept their people alive in the hardest conditions on our planet.

Please don't confuse the commercial seal hunt and any animal abuse found there with the Inuit seal hunt. Inuk hunters kill as quickly and humanely as possible using the entire animal for their families and their community. The seals live a natural life and are not kept in an inhumane unnatural habitat.

This one seal fed several people and an entire dog team. The leftover parts were chopped up and laid out on the ice so the birds hovering above us could eat as well. Feel free to protest injustices you perceive of the commercial seal hunt, but make sure to separate it from the life and culture sustaining seal hunt of the Inuit. I may have not fired a shot at a living creature, but the honor in participating in the hunt is something I will keep forever.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Igloolik
• Nunavut
• Inuit
• Seal
• Hunt
• Dog
• Sled

[pinz2022]

Hee! Hee! I love the kid, cigarette and all. He must think you're an especially crazy qallunaq for going to all this trouble and expense just to watch one of them stalk a seal, rather than going for a trophy caribou or bear for your den.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that there's a law that requires the use of dog-schlepping rather than ski-doos when hunting--and it was this that brought sled dogs back from extinction.

[bashildy]

@pinz2022 Canada requires that for hunting polar bears you need to use sled dogs which provide income for local guides. Also, walrus hunts also require personnel from the local hamlet office.

I have no interest in trophy hunting. I was out there to learn more about the culture and have made a strong friendship that continues with some of the people in these videos. I was more active in the hunt when searching for seals, but to ensure success Joey wanted to trek on foot solo to not alert seal

[mitomke]

people who didnt like the video can bring celery with them when they visit the arctic.

[Zorica12]

How about the same law be applied to everyone in that if everyone were like Inuit and Micmac, then it would be no problem. Hunting seal for subsistence is different than hunting for mass profit.

And although it's (2010) they still rely on hunting to supplement the extremely expensive groceries they buy already. It's hard for them to afford the 'can of beef stew from the local grocer'. And no one is saying that Inuit or Micmac are above anyone else. Even Europeans used to hunt...long ago.

[DylanSensFan]

Vegetarian's, Vegan's and the like can't talk. Farm land to produce crops for soy or other protein producing vegetables destroy wild habitat and kill various types of animals. PETA pretends this isn't so, and they will ban anyone who mentions it... but I guess they are entitled to their own reality. Zorica... and any other's talking about EUROPEAN BAN etc. The monetary system is an illusion and consumerism is it's result. What these people do in the north to survive is not.

[davidthe1]

@mitomke

HAHAHA!!!! best comment today

[xxnanabanana]

@mitomke Mahahaha. See how warm the negative calories keep them.

[bryanncampbellca]

@sc4rzpur3 Haha you're right. There might be a game warrden or 2 but really how many could they get?

[TheFramer38]

So I just had to sign in just to say this.

That kid should not be smoking thats just stupid.

This is just to prove that some school in Utah is teaching them that we Kill seals by Bashing them and thanks for this video idiots like the teacher in Utah says "they bash baby seals" they don't even research before they teach.

Pretty stupid tbh.

[agricola]

also they can blame the newfoundlanders for the negative image of seal hunting rather than whining about the europeans and their mean old ban.

[agricola]

how is their culture being extinguished? they have survived this far without much contact or interaction with the rest of the world, i cant see why they cant still go on as it always was. its the EU's right to ban their products if they see fit to do so and if the inuit dont like it, either find a market who will accept their products or just practice self sufficency. no one can be forced to buy what they dont want.

[pinz2022]

@bashildy

I get a kick out of the pooches, too. So laid back and blase. Utterly unlike the thin-coated, hyper, Idita-doggies.