Seal hunting

Other nations had been heavily involved in the hunting of whales and seals for a long time. In more recent times, Norway joined in the hunt with a few trips from 1790 onwards. It was the merchant Buck who was behind these first trips, but it was not until 1819 that what we can call continuous seal hunting from Norway began. Svend Foyn (1809-1894) joined in the seal hunt from 1846, Tromsø followed soon after, and from 1898 the Sunnmøre people also joined in. It was now that the focus on seal hunting was really on. The Sunnmøre people quickly understood that if they were to make a profit from the hunt, they had to start building special ships for seal hunting, larger and stronger ships that could get into the ice and carry more cargo.

From 1910 onwards, a large fleet of seal-catching vessels specially built for seal hunting emerged. Before this, small fishing boats were used, with only sails for propulsion, and the hunt took place on the ice edge. A large new industry emerged that became of great economic importance to the entire country. Around 1000 vessels have been engaged in this Arctic sea and seal hunting. Add to this the equipment, repairs, etc. that these vessels have needed, and it is not difficult to see how important the industry has been to Norway as a nation. In the period around World War I, seal and whale products were Norway's second largest export.

During this period, the fishing took place primarily in the Vesterisen and Austisen. The Vesterisen is the ice in the area around Jan Mayen, in to Greenland and from about 68 degrees north to 73 degrees north. The fishing vessels were traditionally in this area from about 20 March to the end of May. The ice in the Vesterisen is often very hard blue ice.

The East Ice was the area north of the Kvitsjø estuary and further east. Here the ice is softer and the small ships were able to get further in. If all went well, the ships could first make a trip to the West Ice, then perhaps go to the East Ice for a new fishing trip. From 1908 the Sunnmøre ships also drifted in the Danish Strait. This fishing also took place after the West Ice trip had been completed. These trips in the Danish Strait were combined seal and hawksbill fishing. The Danish Strait is the strait between Greenland and Iceland. Later, from 1938 onwards, the seal hunt at Newfoundland became the largest and most important after the Second World War.

As many new Arctic ships arrived from 1910, and up to and during the First World War, there were many vessels and fewer seals in the traditional hunting areas in the West Ice, the North Ice, and the East Ice. The market for skins and blubber had grown rapidly during this period, and it was important to find new hunting grounds if the industry was not to decline. This was the reason why in 1918 there were more ships that went out to hunt in the White Sea.

The White Sea lies to the east and south of the Kola Peninsula. It consists of a large inlet from the Barents Sea, continuing through a narrower section, the White Sea Neck, and then widening out to the inner White Sea south of the Kola Peninsula. In the eastern part, Arkhangelsk is located at the mouth of the Dvina River.

As early as 1867, ships from Northern Norway began to hunt in the Kvitsjø estuary and further east, but the small ships with only sails for propulsion were unable to enter the ice, and the hunt was carried out on the edge. In Kvitsjøen, seals calve (give birth) at the end of February and the beginning of March. Skipper Sigvald Brandal with the ship "Helga" was the first to go out in the Norwegian hunt inside Kvitsjøen, in 1911. He made his way through the ice and came all the way to the calve. It was Brandal's experiences that the other ships relied on when they made their way into this "new" field in 1918, which was the start of 20 years of adventurous hunts in Kvitsjøen.

The large catches were of great importance to both shipowners and Norway as a country during this 20-year period when there was a simultaneous decline in seals in the West and East Ice. And the large values ​​lured more and more ships into this field. But at the same time, this field also led to great losses. While in the West Ice it was the storms that most often broke down the ships, the danger in the White Sea was the ice drift. Because of the large difference between the ebb and flow, the ice moves many miles in and out with each change in the current, and on the many shallow banks, ice drift could occur that no ship could tolerate.

No other fishing ground has had so many ships sunk. In the period from 1924 until fishing was ended in the White Sea in 1939, 60% of all shipwrecks occurred in this area. 115 ships went down in a 15-year period. In 1928, 11 (!) ships sank here in one day. In these years, not many new ones were built, so that the number of ships that peaked in 1928 with about 150 for the whole country, fell to 64 in 1939. Fortunately, the crews were rescued during all these shipwrecks. It was easier for the crew to save themselves on the ice and find a companion ship, and it was also a shorter way to land. In the Vesterisen, the loss of human life was in contrast great, 164 men escaped in just the two major storms in 1917 (seven ships) and 1952 (five ships).

In the peak year of 1925, Norway caught 400.000 seals. In 1970, the number was 163.000, and ten years later it had dropped to 60.000 seals. In 1990, the same number was 15.000 seals, and in 2014, just under 12.000 seals were caught. Of course, there were periods of overtaxation of seals, and over time the industry gained a bad reputation and came under heavy pressure from many quarters. Animal welfare organizations around the world made good money protesting against Norwegian and Canadian seal hunting. But did the industry deserve this bad reputation? Hardly. Anyone who has been to the Arctic Ocean knows that seals are killed in a humane and good way. Today, seals are killed three times. First they are shot, then beaten with a hook, and finally bled immediately.

There are two vessels on land as monuments to Norwegian sealing, one in Brandal and one in Tromsø. "Aarvak", built in 1912, is well over 30 years older than "Polstjerna", which was launched in 1949.

Seal hunting has always had a great importance for the people along the coast, and we must continue to have seal hunting in the future.