chickens per day, more than 3 million per week and a mind-boggling 157,248,000
chickens per year!
Marine mammals have never seen such large numbers of killing. While certainly
their size plays a role, they are, after all, animals living in the wild that humans need
to physically hunt in order to consume them. Of course, this is not to say that marine
mammals have not been bred in captivity: the polar bear Knut which was born in
2006 and died in 2011 at the Berlin Zoological Garden is but one example of a
captivity-bred marine mammal. Further, this is not to say that marine mammals have
never seen vast numbers of killing. Over the course of several centuries, millions and
millions of seals and whales have been killed for commercial purposes which
drastically reduced their numbers to the brink of collapse. In some cases, they
have all but disappeared. For example, the last known specimen of the Caribbean
monk seal (Neomonachus tropicalis) was sighted in 1952 between Jamaica and
Nicaragua. Also during the so-called ‘Whaling Olympics’—the decades after the
Second World War until the adoption of the whaling moratorium—millions of
whales were killed, driving particularly some large whale species close to extinction.
At the same time, countless smaller cetaceans have been hunted in the drive fisheries
of the Faroe Islands (Grindadráp) or in Japan (oikomi-ryō, 追い込み漁), to name
a few.
In this chapter we get to know some of the cultures that have hunted and are still
hunting marine mammals. Naturally, it is impossible to delve into all hunting
cultures of the world since this would significantly go beyond the scope of this
chapter. You will find literature in the ‘Further Reading’ list at the end of this chapter
that both engage deeper with the socio-economic and cultural aspects of marine
mammal hunts and which cover large geographical areas. In this chapter we focus on
the geographical regions and countries that are still relevant in the discourse on
marine mammal and marine mammal use: the Arctic, the Faroe Islands and Iceland,
Newfoundland (Canada) and Japan. While we focus on these, you, the reader, will
furthermore learn of whale hunts in the Caribbean and of whaling and sealing in
Australia. The point of this chapter is to show that marine mammal utilisation has
had a tremendous impact on peoples and cultures all over the world.
3.2
Marine Mammals and Human Societies
3.2.1 The Arctic
The dimensions of industrial marine mammal hunts are unimaginable in the frosty
realms of the Arctic. Here, Arctic peoples have hunted seals and whales for
generations—and indeed for millennia. While in the northern Atlantic it was primarily the Norse people in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the islands of the North
Atlantic who hunted seals, whales and walruses, the same can be said about the Inuit
cultures of Greenland, Canada, Alaska and Chukotka. The importance of marine
mammals is reflected in the myths and knowledge of the Arctic as well as and in
unwritten, customary laws. Sharing of food or work, for instance, has been an
3.2 Marine Mammals and Human Societies
37
chickens per year!
Marine mammals have never seen such large numbers of killing. While certainly
their size plays a role, they are, after all, animals living in the wild that humans need
to physically hunt in order to consume them. Of course, this is not to say that marine
mammals have not been bred in captivity: the polar bear Knut which was born in
2006 and died in 2011 at the Berlin Zoological Garden is but one example of a
captivity-bred marine mammal. Further, this is not to say that marine mammals have
never seen vast numbers of killing. Over the course of several centuries, millions and
millions of seals and whales have been killed for commercial purposes which
drastically reduced their numbers to the brink of collapse. In some cases, they
have all but disappeared. For example, the last known specimen of the Caribbean
monk seal (Neomonachus tropicalis) was sighted in 1952 between Jamaica and
Nicaragua. Also during the so-called ‘Whaling Olympics’—the decades after the
Second World War until the adoption of the whaling moratorium—millions of
whales were killed, driving particularly some large whale species close to extinction.
At the same time, countless smaller cetaceans have been hunted in the drive fisheries
of the Faroe Islands (Grindadráp) or in Japan (oikomi-ryō, 追い込み漁), to name
a few.
In this chapter we get to know some of the cultures that have hunted and are still
hunting marine mammals. Naturally, it is impossible to delve into all hunting
cultures of the world since this would significantly go beyond the scope of this
chapter. You will find literature in the ‘Further Reading’ list at the end of this chapter
that both engage deeper with the socio-economic and cultural aspects of marine
mammal hunts and which cover large geographical areas. In this chapter we focus on
the geographical regions and countries that are still relevant in the discourse on
marine mammal and marine mammal use: the Arctic, the Faroe Islands and Iceland,
Newfoundland (Canada) and Japan. While we focus on these, you, the reader, will
furthermore learn of whale hunts in the Caribbean and of whaling and sealing in
Australia. The point of this chapter is to show that marine mammal utilisation has
had a tremendous impact on peoples and cultures all over the world.
3.2
Marine Mammals and Human Societies
3.2.1 The Arctic
The dimensions of industrial marine mammal hunts are unimaginable in the frosty
realms of the Arctic. Here, Arctic peoples have hunted seals and whales for
generations—and indeed for millennia. While in the northern Atlantic it was primarily the Norse people in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the islands of the North
Atlantic who hunted seals, whales and walruses, the same can be said about the Inuit
cultures of Greenland, Canada, Alaska and Chukotka. The importance of marine
mammals is reflected in the myths and knowledge of the Arctic as well as and in
unwritten, customary laws. Sharing of food or work, for instance, has been an
3.2 Marine Mammals and Human Societies
37