Remarks on Eskimo Sealing and the Harp Seal Controversy
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SHORT PAPERS,NOTES, AND INSTITUTE NEWS 267 Remarks on Eskimo Sealing and usually much less than that earned from terrestrial animals such as the fox, land otter, and the Harp Seal Controversy muskrat, wolf, wolverine, or polar bear. Beginning in about 1962, advanced tech- Mostinhabitants of the North today are niquesin the preparation of hair-seal pelts employed full time or part time in the har- and the increased use of sealskins in cloth- vesting of biological resources. Until World ing, especially in Europe, combined to create War 11, earnings fromthe production of a rapidlyexpanding market for skins from renewable resourcesin nearly every major all seal species. For the first time, the ringed region of the circumpolar North exceeded seal, or jar, of the far north reached market incomes from nonrenewable-resource based values which made Eskimoseal hunting industries. In general,the most important highly lucrative. For example,in eastern producers have been the commercial fisheries BaRn Island,young ringed sealssold for of subarctic waters, followed by furs of wild $4.00 per skin in 1955 and $17.50 in 1963. and domesticated land mammals, again pre- Mature ringed seals increased in value from dominately from subarcticareas. Since the $1.50 to $12.25 during the same period. Ex- heyday of European and American northern ceptionally good skins often sold for well hunting in the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- over $20.00 in Alaska andCanada during turies, however, the economic importance of 1963 and 1964. Average sealskin prices in marine mammals has often been highly un- Greenland, carefully controlled by the gov- derrated. ernment, rose from $2.80 in 1958 to $8.30 in One reason that marine mammalsare 1965. usually relegated to a secondaryeconomic Response to the improved market for hair role is that many species have been decimated seals was widespread throughout the North. by decades of overexploitation. The walrus In the Northwest Territories, the number of has beennearly exterminated in the north- sealskins traded increased from 10,470, valu- eastern Atlanticand drasticallyreduced in edat $48,689 in 1961-62, to 46,962 skins numbers inthe northwesternAtlantic and worth $691,707 in 1963-64. In Alaska, the northern Pacific. TheGreenland and right number of pelts sold increased from 15,000 whales, inboth oceans,reached such low in 1962 to 60,000 in 1965. Alaskan hair-seal population levels that international prohibi- production in 1965 was valued at $1,000,000. tion of hunting was instituted. Similar inter- In Greenland, theseal harvest increased from national agreements also saved the sea otter 52,763 in 1954 to over 76,000 in 1964. The and northernfur seal from extinction. Re- average value of skins producedin Green- cently, concern forthe steady decline of land in 1963 and 1964 was about $800,000 Greenland or harp seals inthe White and per year. Barents seas led the Soviet Union and Nor- Startingin 1964, individuals associated way to proclaim a five-year closed season in with the Society for thePrevention of Cruelty these areasand restricted hunting inJan to Animals, especially inNew Brunswick Mayen waters. In order toprotect the breed- and Quebec, became increasingly concerned ing of the harp seal population in the Gulf of with the manner in which newborn harp seals St. Lawrence, Canadahas taken steps to were killed in the annual Gulf of St. Law- strengthenconservation practices. Also at rence and Newfoundland hunt. These critics Canada’s request, seals are now considered contended that seal pups were skinned alive. one of the responsibilities of the Interna- Evidence in the form of television films and tional Commission for the Northwest Atlan- eyewitness accounts were widely disseminated tic Fisheries. in many of western Europe andeastern North In the twentieth century, the two northern America. A book, The Last Seal Pup, by mzrine mammal species considered most im- PeterLust also focused attention onthe portant,in terms of cashvalue, have been purportedly inhumane killing of whitecoats. the newborn harp seal, or “whitecoat,” and Results of the campaign to prevent cruelty the northern fur seal. But direct income to in the harvest of harp seal pups have ranged northern native peoples from the harvest of far beyond the killing grounds of eastern these animals has been negligible. Inthe Canadian waters. The highly charged emo- first case, harp sealpups are takenalmost tionalovertones of the issue apparently exclusively by nonaboriginal hunters, and in caused the average female consumer to boy- the second case, comparatively few native cott all sealskin products. By the spring of people receive wages from the government- 1967, the market forsealskins in Switzerland controlled fur seal industry. To the average had dropped to 5 per cent of its former level, Eskimo hunter of Alaska, Canada, or Green- sales in West Germany weredown by 50 land, therefore, cash income from the sale of per cent and one quarter of the Greenlandic marine mammal products has been minimal skins placed on auction in April went unsold. 268 SHORT PAPERS,NOTES, AND INSTITUTE NEWS Although world sealskin prices have dropped Althoughthe final outcome of thede- since 1965, the most catastrophic decline has pressed sealskin market is difficult to fore- come, not inwhitecoat and fur-seal pelts, cast, there are indications of its probable but in other species, especially the ringed seal. impact on many Eskimo groups. In Green- During the summer of 1967, most buyers in land, it has been estimated that one quarter Alaska refused to purchase ringed-seal skins of the population stands to lose its livelihood, at anyprice; in Canada, the Hudson’s Bay with no alternativein sight. This figure is Company announced that it would buy pelts probably much higher in most parts of arctic at $2.50 each in order to prevent total eco- Canada and in coastal northern Alaska. To nomic collapse in many northern areas, and anumber of Eskimohunters, the present in Greenland the Royal Greenland Trade De- situation is critical because they have already partment has had toreview its price structure, invested profits from the seal hunt in modern which was originally set on 1965 market equipment. In eastern Baffin Island, for ex- values. ample,most hunters used theirearnings of It is ironic that the efforts to prevent in- the early 1960’s to purchase low-calibre high- humane killing of newborn harp seals have powered rifles with telescopic sights, out- had their greatestimpact on seal hunters boardmotors, canoes or flatbottomboats, who use the mosthumane killing methods and motorizedsnow machines. TheCum- and who seldom, if ever, encounter a harp berlandSound region in 1962 had only 1 seal pup. Thesesealers are theEskimos of native-owned snow machine. By 1964, the Alaska, Canada,and Greenland. Because number had increased to 17 and in 1966 they hunt with high-powered rifles theseal there were 36 machines in use. During the is usually killed instantaneously with a head summer of 1953, the Clyde River area shot. Ecological conditions and migratory Eskimos had only 2 small, unpowered wood- habits of theharp and other seal species en boats and one 18-foot canoe with an out- cause the composition of the average Eskimo board motor. In 1966, the same region was seal take to be 90 per cent or more ringed serviced by 25 canoes, 27 outboard motors, seals. The ironyof the situation is further and 1 large, powered whaleboat. Broughton emphasized by the factthat retail market Island, in 1961, had 2 canoes and 3 whale- reactionhas been strongest against skins boats, whereas in 1966 the community had 9 which the consumer can obviously identify canoes, 12 rowboats, and 6 whaleboats. as seal. Both the whitecoat andfur seal Modernization of the Eskimo seal-hunting provide high qualitypelts that undergo industry has meant an increase in operating specialized tanning and dying processes to costs. Astudy of gasoline, motor oil, and produce a finished product quite unlike the ammunitionexpenditures forthe period stereotyped version of a sealskin. The ap- August 1965 through July 1966 for eastern pearance of the ringed seal and other hair Baffin Island showed the cost per sealskin seal species, however, remains unchanged as sold, for all species, was $6.29 in Cumberland a result of tanning. These skins, therefore, Sound, $5.45 at Broughton and Padloping are easily rejected by perspective buyers in- Islands, and $4.46 at Clyde River. It is clear fluenced by any stigma surrounding sealskins from these figures that the present value of in general. sealskins in no waycovers basic operating To a great many Eskimos in the northern and depreciation costs. Westernhemisphere thedrop in sealskin The controversyover killing methods of prices has been a calamity. It has meant de- harp sealpups has produced consequences struction of a viable industry badly needed in far beyond those intended by the well-mean- an economically depressed region. In 1956, ingpersons who first publicized the issue. for example, the Eskimo population of Cum- But if accusations aretrue that television berlandSound earned a total of $14,526 films were intentionally falsified in order to fromfurs and white-whale hunting. This createpublic outrage, then thecampaign gave an averageper household income of to prevent cruelty to animals has been dou- $1 15. In 1964, the estimated value of the bly tragic. At the moment, the individual who area’s furtake was $163,573, or about has suffered most is the isolated Eskimo seal $1,434 per household. At Clyde River, in hunter of the Arctic who can no longer earn northern Baffin Island, the totalvalue of enough from a basic way of life to utilize his furs traded in 1957 was $3,678, or about$1 11 newly acquiredequipment and supporthis perhousehold; in 1964, a total of $28,000 family.