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Sunday 05.02.2012

Alaska meets Greenland

This week, Mary Hiratsuka, who on a five-month internship at the Inuit Circumpolar Council in Greenland from Alaska, finds whale meat for sale in Nuuk's stores and markets...

In a new country, everything from walking to work to checking the mail seems to contain some enchanting element.



My first expedition to Brugsen, one of the two main grocery stores in Nuuk, was an epic adventure, mostly because the labels were in a foreign language. Like markets at home there was a department for personal hygiene, the obligatory candy aisle near the registers, canned goods, dairy section, fresh bread, a set of refrigerated aisles for fresh produce and of course the meats and frozen foods that occupied these refrigerators.

Somewhere between the frozen veggie mix and ground beef sat a variety of locally harvested meats. In awe, I picked up a neatly packaged and priced item that read: Tikaagullik. Looking it over, I barely recognized it because I was so distracted by the pretty blue label proudly reading “Slagter Mesteren’s 38 Dkr”, approximately seven U.S. dollars.

This dark meat was placed in the same open freezer as another darker meat and a few halibut and salmon fillets. Bemused by the deep burgundy color, I asked a butcher passing by what “Tikaagullik” translated to in English.

The last time I’d seen a cut of meat this dark was at my Gram’s house, a fresh seal that one of the Wassily boys had brought over with some seal oil and fish heads. Most locals around the Bristol Bay area look forward to spring because it marks the end of winter and the beginning of seal and walrus season.

Although the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 bans the hunting and, presumably, the market of any marine mammals, the act does allow the capture of marine mammals for scientific purposes and for subsistence hunting by Native people.

“Eh … I’m not sure what it’s called in English, but it’s a local whale,” he said. According to a Greenlandic, Danish, English dictionary, Tikaagullik translates to minke whale. Malinnguaq Kleist, the butcher from Brugsen, explained that the grocery store hires fisherman to bring fresh minke whale, seal meat and other fish for them to package and sell to locals.

Meanwhile, quotas for minke and fin whales are allocated to municipalities in consultation with KNAPK and KANUKOKA (which are non-governmental organizations) based on community population, availability of fishing vessels properly equipped, and the number of settlements within the municipality. Greenland’s Home Rule government requires that hunters taking minke and fin whales must have a whaling license and report details of their catch or strike to municipal and Home Rule authorities. Violation of either of these regulations could result in the confiscation of products and potentially a reduction of the entire community’s whaling quota the following year.

Malinnguaq encouraged me to walk down to Nuummi Kalaaliaraq, the fresh meat market. I was greeted by a few bins of fresh trout for 20 Danish kroner, approximately $3 U.S. per fish. Not much further inside the covered area sat fresh fillets, fins and liver of seal and minke whale.

Of course, having such a market does not exist without criticism. According to a review of Greenlandic whaling management regimes in a book I read called “Inuit, Whaling and Sustainability” Greenland continues to refine and improve its whaling management by relying on Inuit hunters and advice from biologists. However, such improvements do not shield the hunters from animal protection organizations who are ideologically opposed to the harvesting of whales and seals.

A few governmental members on the International Whaling Commission in conjunction with anti-whaling groups argue that the sale of whale products, which has long existed in Greenland, constitutes a “commercial” hunt, which should be outlawed under IWC rules.

However, Greenland manages to bypass this regulation because Greenland’s Home Rule government organizes whaling under the Fisheries and Industry Department. Its minister has noted that such sales coincide with IWC regulations because they embody “sustainable community development with the cultural goals of ensuring that customary food is widely distributed to those who need to eat it.”

Greenland’s governmentally supported market for seal, minke and fin whale meat was somewhat startling to me because in my experience, such foods had always been categorized as traditional and subsistence-based. It would seem cultural contradictory and illegal to sell either whale or seal meat in Alaska.

Once again, I was fascinated by the unusual way of life in Greenland, particularly because more products that had always been rare and traditional treats were made available in a local grocery store. I’m sure my Gram would be awestruck with delight.