Polar evening at the Ishavsmuseet on Friday 17 February at 7:00 PM Seal hunting – a life for men

Norway has long traditions and experiences as a polar and hunting nation. Apart from the purely scientific expeditions, it was the seal hunt itself that prompted enterprising Sunnmøringar and Nordländer to equip ships, recruit crews and set sail for inhospitable and ice-filled waters. Seal hunting created many jobs at sea and on land, and the economic ripple effects were enormous.

The speaker who will visit the Ishavsmuseet on Friday, February 17, with the lecture "Seal hunting - a life for men" also has extensive experience from polar regions. Britt Johansen, who has written the book with the same title, has delivered an excellent book about people and vessels involved in seal hunting. Britt has himself tried his hand at seal hunting as a steersman on "Havsel" in the Vesterisen in 2005 and 2006.

Britt has a versatile background, and in recent years has had extensive experience in polar regions. After agricultural school, she ran her parents' farm for eight years. After that, she studied for four years at the then Bodø University College (fishing/trapping, aquaculture, management and administration). Then there were about 17 years in an office, which she thought was enough. In 2006, she changed jobs to meteorology officer on Bjørnøya. Then there was a corresponding job at the weather station in Danmarkshavn 76 degrees N, northeast coast of Greenland in 2007 and 2008. Then there were two seasons in Norway again, Jan Mayen October-March 2008/-09 and Hopen December-May 2009/-10. Since then, there has been work in the weather service in Greenland for shorter and longer periods. (Danmarkshavn, Scoresbysund, Narsarsuaq) Last summer, Britt was a holiday substitute for a few weeks in Scoresbysund.   

Transport to Danmarkshavn is currently carried out by TwinOtter from Iceland, but in earlier times it was common to use Norwegian sealing ships.

People and vessels from Nordland make up the bulk of the book's content, but it also tells a lot about seal hunting from other parts of the country. She lets many of the former sealers tell their own stories about risky hunting trips and expeditions, where the margins between life and death could often be small. The book also gives an impression of what it was like for those who stayed at home.

The Arctic is currently in focus in new ways. In her lecture at the Ishavsmuseet, Britt Johansen takes us into a history and activity that today is only a pale shadow of what it once was – Norwegian sealing. In her lecture, she sweeps through large areas, from the White Sea in the east to Newfoundland in the west. Britt Johansen is from Steigen in Nordland, but currently lives in Bodø where she has been collecting Arctic history since 2002.

After the lecture, the Ishavsmuseet will offer authentic Arctic cuisine with salted meat, pork and peas. Registration required.