staple. Since the ring worm affects fish stocks, the Icelandic government has been
primarily interested in managing rather than commercially using seal populations
since the 1980s.
Whales have provided the Icelandic people with significant amounts of food and
economic income since the island’s settlement. Therefore, Icelandic culture holds
countless references to whales and whaling. Since 1948 it has been one company,
Hvalur H/F, which has been operating land stations in Iceland, catching around
300 whales per year. When the moratorium on commercial whaling under the IWC
came into effect in 1985/86, these whaling operations ceased since Iceland was a
member of the Commission and did not object to the moratorium. In the same year,
two whalers were sunk in Reykjavík harbour by members of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society (SSCS). While Iceland conducted a limited degree of research
whaling after the moratorium had come into force, it was pressured from other
countries to halt this, despite scientific whaling being legal under the whaling
convention (see Sect. 5.2.3). Due to its unwillingness to give up whaling, Iceland
left the IWC in 1992, but rejoined 10 years later, this time with an official reservation
towards the moratorium. In 2006, Iceland started hunting whales for commercial
purposes again.
The Faroe Islands have seen whaling since their first settlement. Over the
centuries, whaling has been an integral part of the islands’ economic and sociocultural systems. While in Iceland, over time, attention shifted to whales offshore,
Faroese whaling has concentrated on the whale drive, meaning the driving of small
cetaceans into the shores of the islands where they are killed. This is referred to as the
Grindadráp. Even though the hunt is strictly regulated, it has been subject to intense
international pressure. Organisations such as SSCS or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have launched large international campaigns against the
Faroe Islands to force it to stop its whale hunt by, for example, targeting the Faroese
fish exports and lobbying governments to instigate a ban on Faroese fish products.
Seals have never been hunted to this extend. Mythologically, seals have been
regarded as former humans that have sought death in the sea, but that also return
back to land. One of the most popular tales in the Faroes is that of the Kópakonan,
the Seal Woman. The story manifests a long-standing perception of seals in the
North Atlantic: the selkie—a hybrid creature between seal and human. Since,
contrary to whales, seals spend their lives on both land/ice and in the sea,
mythologies of the North Atlantic treat them accordingly. Icelandic anthropologist
Níels Einarsson refers to them as “betwixt and between’ in the land/sea dichotomy.”
7
While this was also the case for Norway, the Norwegian relationship with seals has
been marked by both traditional selkie-perception and as a commercial commodity,
as we have seen above. While this accounts for the ethnic Norwegians, this is also
true for the indigenous Sámi whose mythology is characterised by the Arctic
environment. Stretching across the Arctic regions of four countries in northern
Europe—Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia—the Sámi are commonly known
7 Einarsson (1990), p. 37.
3.2 Marine Mammals and Human Societies
43
primarily interested in managing rather than commercially using seal populations
since the 1980s.
Whales have provided the Icelandic people with significant amounts of food and
economic income since the island’s settlement. Therefore, Icelandic culture holds
countless references to whales and whaling. Since 1948 it has been one company,
Hvalur H/F, which has been operating land stations in Iceland, catching around
300 whales per year. When the moratorium on commercial whaling under the IWC
came into effect in 1985/86, these whaling operations ceased since Iceland was a
member of the Commission and did not object to the moratorium. In the same year,
two whalers were sunk in Reykjavík harbour by members of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society (SSCS). While Iceland conducted a limited degree of research
whaling after the moratorium had come into force, it was pressured from other
countries to halt this, despite scientific whaling being legal under the whaling
convention (see Sect. 5.2.3). Due to its unwillingness to give up whaling, Iceland
left the IWC in 1992, but rejoined 10 years later, this time with an official reservation
towards the moratorium. In 2006, Iceland started hunting whales for commercial
purposes again.
The Faroe Islands have seen whaling since their first settlement. Over the
centuries, whaling has been an integral part of the islands’ economic and sociocultural systems. While in Iceland, over time, attention shifted to whales offshore,
Faroese whaling has concentrated on the whale drive, meaning the driving of small
cetaceans into the shores of the islands where they are killed. This is referred to as the
Grindadráp. Even though the hunt is strictly regulated, it has been subject to intense
international pressure. Organisations such as SSCS or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have launched large international campaigns against the
Faroe Islands to force it to stop its whale hunt by, for example, targeting the Faroese
fish exports and lobbying governments to instigate a ban on Faroese fish products.
Seals have never been hunted to this extend. Mythologically, seals have been
regarded as former humans that have sought death in the sea, but that also return
back to land. One of the most popular tales in the Faroes is that of the Kópakonan,
the Seal Woman. The story manifests a long-standing perception of seals in the
North Atlantic: the selkie—a hybrid creature between seal and human. Since,
contrary to whales, seals spend their lives on both land/ice and in the sea,
mythologies of the North Atlantic treat them accordingly. Icelandic anthropologist
Níels Einarsson refers to them as “betwixt and between’ in the land/sea dichotomy.”
7
While this was also the case for Norway, the Norwegian relationship with seals has
been marked by both traditional selkie-perception and as a commercial commodity,
as we have seen above. While this accounts for the ethnic Norwegians, this is also
true for the indigenous Sámi whose mythology is characterised by the Arctic
environment. Stretching across the Arctic regions of four countries in northern
Europe—Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia—the Sámi are commonly known
7 Einarsson (1990), p. 37.
3.2 Marine Mammals and Human Societies
43