What do you know about seal hunting?

Seal hunting has been practiced along our coast for thousands of years.

1 / 10

Where is Vesterisen?

Photos: Johan Veiseth

2 / 10

How many seals does Norway catch in a year, at most?

Photos: Bjorn Berland

3 / 10

Where is the Danish Strait where combined seal and hawksbill fishing takes place?

Photos: Bjorn Berland

4 / 10

Where is the White Sea?

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What is the name of the glacial ship on display at the Polar Museum, Tromsø Museum?

Photos: Beathe Holstad

6 / 10

When do seals in the White Sea give birth to their young?

7 / 10

What was the main reason why many ships sank in the White Sea?

8 / 10

How many ships got lost in the Vesterisen in 1917?

9 / 10

What is the name of Blueback's father?

Photos: Bjorn Berland

10 / 10

What year was Aarvak built?

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Photos: Bjorn Berland

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Seal hunting

Seal hunting has been practiced along our coast for thousands of years. Seals were easy to catch and provided a lot of nutritious food for a growing coastal population, although it was probably the fat that was most important, even then.

Father and son Brandal started the seal hunt from Sunnmøre

1898 was a landmark year for the fishermen from Sunnmøre. Severin Brandal, father of Peter S. Brandal, took the lead in establishing seal fishing from Sunnmøre. Both men had noticed for several years, while fishing for cod in Finnmarka, that the skates there were loaded with skins and blubber from seals.

The trap

This article is about the different hunting grounds that Norwegians traveled to: the West Ice, Newfoundland, the Svalbard area/North Ice, the East Ice and the White Sea. Johannes Bjarne Alme and Webjørn Landmark write about the different hunting grounds.