Touching seals

Trudging across the sea ice – three geologists, returning from a day’s work amongst iced-in islands in east Antarctica – we spotted a dark slug-like shape in the otherwise completely white expanse before us. It was a Weddell seal, languishing by its breathing hole. One of my companions decided he wanted to know what a seal feels like. We crept towards the lethargic creature, which occasionally opened one sleepy eye to assess our progress. While two of us stopped a few metres away, the third began his ill-advised approach from behind the seal. Creeping toward it, he removed one of his gloves and reached out over its hind flippers. The moment his fingers gently touched the beautiful dappled grey fur on its rump, the seal reared up six feet in height, is pink mouth wide, teeth bared, roaring. Our curious colleague flung himself desperately backwards away from the transformed, terrifying beast as we looked on, doubled up in laughter.

One would never get so close to a seal in Greenland. Seals here are hunted and so are much more wary of humans. In fact, I am amazed at the skill of Greenlandic hunters, standing in their open boats out on the wide fjord, watching the water hawk-like, rifles ready. How do they regularly bring home seals when I rarely even notice the tell-tale ripples on the surface, the smooth dark shape of a grey head briefly surfacing in the distance before rapidly sliding back under the sea? Despite this, I do know what a seal feels like – also what it smells like and what it tastes like – but only from dead seals of course. Seals are eaten, their hides used for clothing, sometimes their claws also for jewellery or ornaments. Nothing is wasted. And despite hunting, Greenlandic seal populations thrive. Once, the trade in sealskins to Europe supported the livelihood of small Greenlandic communities, a rich source of income where otherwise there were few opportunities. But the 2009 European Union ban on import of seal products – a response to Canadian practices that were not employed in Greenland – all but destroyed the market, despite the ‘Inuit exemption’ for fur products. The damage was done.

Now, the Danish fur industry is also all but destroyed. The entire Danish mink population – millions of mink – was killed in the past weeks to avoid the spread of a Covid-variant virus that the Danish government feared would spread to humans and threaten the efficacy of future vaccines. It’s devastating though of course not quite the same. Mink are not ‘free-range’. Mink are not the primary source of income to most communities. One could imagine this terrible situation might open up some possibilities for building trade in Greenlandic seal skins anew, but it’s unlikely.