BootsnAll Travel Network



Dishing out the local Wildlife (I)

17th August 2006

There is a press release pinned to the town noticeboard. The new season’s quotas for belugas and narwhals have been set: 285 narwhals (but minus the number caught in the previous year by some of the communities in excess of their allocations) and 160 belugas.

The narwhal quota will be re-evaluated in the autum, as many of the later (spring) catches seem to derive from the Smith’s Sound population for which there is no biological monitoring. As far as West Geenland is concerned, the biologists’ advice for belugas is 100, not 160, while that for narwhals is 135—less than half the number decided on.

The committee states that the reason it chose to set higher than recommended quotas are regards for the requirements of commercial hunters, but that quotas will be gradually reduced to the recommended levels.

Whale quota declaration

I suppose that, at the same time, the recommended levels will also be reduced. As far as know, biologists do not factor in politics when setting quotas based on population models; and, as has been seen in fisheries, neither do the stocks. Catch too many, and you are left with fewer in the future.

The Greenlandic government is concerned about the impact of the trade in narval teeth on the catch and has recently decreed that narval teeth and products made thereof can no longer be exported from Greenland by non-residents. In other word, the sale of these items to tourists is banned (good luck with trying to get this link to work in English). However, this ban is not exactly widely advertised and these products are still on sale in many shops, alongside other products which either require CITES permits (walrus, wolf, polar bear, beluga and—until recently—narwhal) or are banned outright (fin whale, sperm whale etc.)

The conflict between biologists, conservationists and hunters is far from unresolved, but even with the sale of artefacts to tourists, the catch is overwhelmingly destined for local consumption. I don’t have a problem with that, always supposing that the increasing influx of tourists does not drive up the demand. Although it strikes me as unsurprising that the communities find it hard to keep to their quotas while so much whale meat ends up neatly shrink-wrapped in supermarkets.

Finwhale in Greenland Supermarket

On the other hand, there are only 55,000 residents in all of Greenland. Even with frozen, neatly portioned whale meat for sale in the big supermarkets, local consumption is not likely to have too much of an impact. However, consumption by tourists is a different kettle of fish.

Twice a week, the Hotel Hvide Falk in Ilulissat holds a ‘Greenland Buffet’, serving local dishes—including whale and polar bear—to up to 100 tourists, from hikers to cruise ship passengers.

I’m in two minds about this. On one hand, this could become a problem when demand by tourists makes up a significant proportion of the meat caught for local consumption. On the other hand, I wanted to try Greenlandic food myself. I was not pepared to order whale curry in the local Chinese (yes, there is one—the Hong Kong Grill Bar—and you can get whale curry there), but I’m not averse to sample non-endangered wildlife such as seal, musk oxen or reindeer. So, for several days, I walked up to the door of Restaurant Mamartut, on the way to the campsite, and knocked—only to find it closed.

With the day of my departure drawing closer, and by now quite sick of the ubiquitous hot-dog and chips (and with my curry cravings satisfied for the moment), I eventually walked up to the Hotel Hvide Falk to have a look at their menu.

“No à la carte today,” the mâitre d’ said. “Tonight is Gr�nlandsbuffet.”

I struggled with my conscience. This was like catching a whiff of sizzling bacon after deciding to become vegetarian.

“Just tonight?”

“No, Mondays as well.”

By then I would be long gone. I lost the struggle. “OK, book me in.”

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