the heyday of the Hanseatic League from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century.
However, it was not seals from the Baltic Sea that were sought after, but rather seals
put on the market by Norwegian traders. The logs of the ‘Bergenfahrer’, those
shipping from the German city of Lübeck to the Norwegian city of Bergen, indicate
that Norwegian-produced seal blubber and fat were important trade goods for central
Europe. The seminal map Carta Marina by Swedish cartographer Olaus Magnus
from 1539 impressively shows how a whale is flensed on the Faroe Islands and how
hunters harpoon seals in the Gulf of Bothnia (see Fig. 3.1).
This indicates that whaling and sealing in those regions were indeed part of the
common discourse. While Olaus Magnus’ map placed imaginary creatures and sea
monsters on his map, it nevertheless also depicts contemporary understandings of
the regions in question. The examples from the Faroe Islands and from the Gulf of
Bothnia, paired with the archaeological and documentary evidence can be seen as
real-life presentations of marine mammals and their use.
Human societies in the North Atlantic could not have developed without relying
on the sea. While the Faroe Islands and Iceland nowadays are industrialised,
‘modern’ societies, large parts of their economies still depend on fisheries and
other maritime activities. Of course, marine mammals also play a role. Most
importantly, whales have provided the peoples of these remote islands with meat.
Seals, on the other hand, have played a smaller role. In Iceland, seals have been
consumed for human purposes, but have never been exploited commercially.
Although their skins and oil had been a commercial commodity, potential commercial exploitation only started in the late nineteenth century. By then, however, the
global markets for seal oil had already plummeted. Paired with the Great Depression
of the 1920s as well as demographic shifts from smaller to larger settlements,
commercial seal hunts did not take off. Seals are, after all, considered more of a
nuisance animal than a commercial species. The fact that seals often carry the
parasitic ring worm (Pseudoterranova decipiens) has made them unattractive as a
Fig. 3.1 Whale flensing in the Faroe Islands and seal hunting in the Gulf of Bothnia. Excerpts from
Olaus Magnus, Carta Marina, 1539 (# public domain)
42
3 Marine Mammals and Humans
However, it was not seals from the Baltic Sea that were sought after, but rather seals
put on the market by Norwegian traders. The logs of the ‘Bergenfahrer’, those
shipping from the German city of Lübeck to the Norwegian city of Bergen, indicate
that Norwegian-produced seal blubber and fat were important trade goods for central
Europe. The seminal map Carta Marina by Swedish cartographer Olaus Magnus
from 1539 impressively shows how a whale is flensed on the Faroe Islands and how
hunters harpoon seals in the Gulf of Bothnia (see Fig. 3.1).
This indicates that whaling and sealing in those regions were indeed part of the
common discourse. While Olaus Magnus’ map placed imaginary creatures and sea
monsters on his map, it nevertheless also depicts contemporary understandings of
the regions in question. The examples from the Faroe Islands and from the Gulf of
Bothnia, paired with the archaeological and documentary evidence can be seen as
real-life presentations of marine mammals and their use.
Human societies in the North Atlantic could not have developed without relying
on the sea. While the Faroe Islands and Iceland nowadays are industrialised,
‘modern’ societies, large parts of their economies still depend on fisheries and
other maritime activities. Of course, marine mammals also play a role. Most
importantly, whales have provided the peoples of these remote islands with meat.
Seals, on the other hand, have played a smaller role. In Iceland, seals have been
consumed for human purposes, but have never been exploited commercially.
Although their skins and oil had been a commercial commodity, potential commercial exploitation only started in the late nineteenth century. By then, however, the
global markets for seal oil had already plummeted. Paired with the Great Depression
of the 1920s as well as demographic shifts from smaller to larger settlements,
commercial seal hunts did not take off. Seals are, after all, considered more of a
nuisance animal than a commercial species. The fact that seals often carry the
parasitic ring worm (Pseudoterranova decipiens) has made them unattractive as a
Fig. 3.1 Whale flensing in the Faroe Islands and seal hunting in the Gulf of Bothnia. Excerpts from
Olaus Magnus, Carta Marina, 1539 (# public domain)
42
3 Marine Mammals and Humans