The Danish-Greenlandic Environmental Cooperation
Belugas in rough seasBiologists count belugas. Hunters live off of killing them. The authorities have to decide whether it is justifiable to continue hunting belugas on the same scale that it has been done for centuries.
Belugas in the pack ice. Belugas winter in West Greenland, and in late spring migrate north to the Thule area and Canada. In the autumn they migrate back in flocks.
The beluga is in focus. Quotas on how many belugas may be killed are being deliberated. The hunters disagree with the authorities. They think that there are just as many belugas now as there always have been, and accuse biologists of not counting properly. As usual, it is the politicians and the Ministry of Environment and Nature that will act as arbitrators in the on-going controversy.
In short, the management of belugas is a topical example of how sustainability will be practiced in the future. In the case of beluga hunting there are distinct seasons. In the spring, when the ice breaks, the whales migrate north from their wintering areas in West Greenland; from Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn) south to Nuuk (Godthåb). They follow the ice edge to the Thule area and Canada, and can be caught, in the cracks in the ice. Belugas stay up north throughout the summer months. In the autumn, they migrate back in large flocks.
"If someone sees a flock from the mountains or from a boat at sea, the call will go out to the whole village, and the VHF radios will sizzle with messages about the belugas," relates Bo Albrechtsen, director of the museum in Upernavik. The district is known as one of the places where many belugas are brought down, and where beluga hunting is very significant for the hunters' livelihoods. "Then all the hunters leap for their boats, which are usually ready with large of amounts of gasoline, cartridges and rifles."
In the spring, hunting is done in kayaks and from the ice edge. In the autumn, the hunt takes place on the open sea, where they shoot with powerful rifles, and if they are lucky enough to hit a whale, they hurry to it with a hand harpoon before it sinks.
No other hunting methods are used any more. No more blocking the whole mouth of the inlet, like they did in two places in Greenland during the thirties and forties. The corralling method that was used in the sixties and seventies, and especially in the eighties until 1995, is no longer used either. Belugas are herd animals, and are easy to lead. Just like with pilot whale hunting in the Faroe Islands, where a whole flock is driven into an inlet.
Driving was outlawed starting with the 1996 season. Belugas are now hunted using three methods: in the autumn, with what is known as 'open water nets', also in the autumn, from boats and cutters, where the belugas are hunted on the open sea, and in the spring from the ice edge, where the kayak is still a useful tool.
The kayak remains unsurpassed for spring hunting because of the distance out to the ice edge. The kayaks are carried by dogsled to the ice edge, where the hunters wait for seal, narwhale and beluga.
The spring beluga hunt in Greenland is done by kayak from the ice edge, in the autumn
it is done on the open sea in boats.
As a museum official, Bo Albrechtsen is interested in how things were done in the past. "I have made some notes about how kayak hunters used to share the narwhale and beluga catch," relates Bo Albrechtsen. "There were clear rules about dividing the whale into five portions, and about which five persons would each receive his share.
First the mattaq - the skin, which is a delicacy, then the meat, and finally the bones. So traditionally, five families would share a whale."
It is completely different when a lot of whales are caught at once. There might be sales to seafood buyer ships or small local factories. There are none of the latter in the Upernavik area, though; factories there only buy Greenland halibut. Buyer ships purchase mattaq and meat from the hunters to sell along the coast.
According to Bo Albrechtsen, belugas and the situation of the hunters have been debated everywhere: on the radio and television, and hunters from the Upernavik district have also been in the daily press. A few local hunters were invited to Nuuk to participate in panel discussions, now that plans are being made for a clampdown - i.e. quotas - on beluga hunting. Representatives for biologists and for the authorities have held discussions in community centers, and so on.
During the twenty years that counts of the beluga population have been made, the population has decreased dramatically. In order not to neglect this, politicians will have to tighten control, which means setting quotas on belugas now.
But there will be consequences for local communities. Interventions by the Home Rule Government will change traditional ways of sharing whale meat. "I experienced it myself in a village up north where I lived when driving was banned in 1995," says Bo Albrechtsen. "Suddenly, the hunt and the sharing of meat and mattaq were no longer matters for the whole village."
All at once, the hunt and sharing of meat went from being a common affair to being part of the finances of the individual.
In the villages in Upernavik district, Greenland halibut, walrus and polar bear are purchased. There is a lot of money in these animals, like there is in belugas.
Should only fulltime hunters be allowed to hunt belugas in the future?
Narwhales taken down in Kullorsuaq. The tooth of a narwhale alone can be worth about 5,000 crowns (c. 600 US dollars).
A medium-sized beluga (almost three meters long) can bring in 10,000 to 15,000 crowns, (c. 1200-1800 US dollars) and in the case of a big narwhale with a tooth, the earnings can be as high as 20,000 crowns (c. 2400 US dollars).
Timothæus Petersen is chairman of the local fishing and hunting association in Kullorsuaq, the northern-most village in Upernavik district. North of that stretches the icy wilderness of Melville Bay.
When Timothæus looked at my map of the area, he could see right away that it was out of date. The glaciers have melted away at such a pace that islands and new rocks have appeared along the ice front.
What is the hunters' perspective on the debate about belugas? "The biologists say that there are only 8,000 belugas left, and the hunters say there are more. We are the ones that see them when they swim passed Kullorsuaq," says Timothæus Petersen, and explains that in the spring they usually catch one or two belugas from the ice edge in Kullorsuaq. In the autumn, they sail out with boats after all kinds of things, but, "If we see a beluga, we call each other on the VHF's."
There are already quotas on how many fin whales and minke whales can be killed.
"The Home Rule Government will probably demand that we only shoot 400 belugas a year," says Timothæus Petersen, "but for our part, we have told the Home Rule administration that the biologists don't have proof. We think that it will take more than two years to do reliable counts. If we collaborate with the biologists on that, then we will be satisfied."
Walrus and polar bear are reserved for full-time hunters.
"If the Home Rule Government says that we can only shoot 400 a year, then we think that only the full-time hunters should be allowed to kill belugas."
Daily life as a hunter in Kullorsuaq consists of hunting seals, to put it briefly. This provides food for dogs and people, and skins to sell.
"We only sell Greenland halibut about four months a year; there isn't storage space for more," says Timothæus Petersen. "That's why the belugas are so important, because they bring in much more than seal skins. We have to pay the rent, telephone bills and electric bills. If we don't hunt beluga, we can't pay the rent."
Timothæus Petersen advocates waiting a few years before setting quotas, to find out whether it is true that there has been a great decrease in the number of belugas.
"We are not saying that we never believe biologists, but during the last two years, we have not cooperated much with them. If the biologists want to find out about belugas, we have to cooperate more than before. Biologists don't always believe the hunters, what we think about the belugas, and how many we think there are. But, in 1999, for example, the biologists came very late, and flew away very early. Before they came we saw belugas, and we saw them after they flew away.
"If the biologists want to know more about the belugas, they should come earlier and stay longer," finishes the chairman of the local fishing and hunting association.
The heated debate about belugas continues. A consultant on the beluga question is responsible for the Home Rule Government's points of view. His work consists of participating in discussions, whether they take place in the media or in community centers. A kind of traveling circular. The current consultant is Bjørn Rosing.
"I was out for just under two months this winter to convey the message."
"What was the message from the Home Rule Government?"
"It was that belugas and narwhales are going to be put under quotas in the near future. And I had to explain why they needed quotas set on them."
"What did you explain, then?"
"That the counts showed a marked decline. Since the beginning of the nineties, there have been recommendations to reduce the pressure of hunting on belugas."
"But the counts have been heavily criticized."
"Yes, they were, to put it mildly, very lively meetings. I have worked with more or less the same task for ten years. This was the fiercest I've seen. It is certainly not a way to become popular."
It is the mattaq - the skin of the whales - that is valuable. One piece of mattaq the size of this page costs about 200 crowns (c. 24 US dollars).
These discussions resemble very closely the state of war that existed in Denmark between the authorities and biologists on the one hand, and fishermen on the other. And just like with a number of fish species in Denmark, a quota will be set on belugas in Greenland, probably 400 whales a year, which is about half of a normal year's catch.
Pilot whale hunts in the Faroe Islands have been carefully recorded since 1650. Probably the oldest hunting statistics in the world. The pragmatic approach in the Faroe Islands is that if it has been possible since 1650 to take out the same number - on the average - year after year for centuries, then the population can bear it. I asked Bjørn Rosing if something similar could be imagined with the belugas in Greenland.
"Scientists don't think so," he answered. "They think that there has been a dramatic decline in the population." Greenland has hunting records from the 1860's. A lot has happened since then. Boats have become better; weapons have become better, etc.
"That's right," says Bjørn Rosing. "The outboard motor is brutal. Before the outboard motor, we would sometimes come back empty-handed. Now, with the outboard motor, we can cover a very big area, and it is very seldom that anyone comes home without a catch."
But the outboard motor is a doubleedged sword. Bjørn Rosing lived and worked in Upernavik from the late sixties until 1980. The outboard motor was forbidden the first three years; they did not want to disturb the seal hunt. When the outboard motor was accepted, belugas became rarer near inhabited areas.
Bjørn Rosing has seen signs that belugas have, to some extent, changed their range patterns. Previously, belugas have never been reported in Paamiut, but in the last few years, there is some information that belugas were seen there in the winter.
Being in the eye of the storm, like Bjørn Rosing is, gives insight into the worlds of both the biologist and the hunter.
On the one hand, he sees the problems researchers have: "For an animal to be declared an endangered species, the biologists almost have to lay bodies on the table."
On the other hand he recognizes that hunters do not have a lot of respect for scientists. "The track record is scary. A few years ago, they claimed that the last beluga would be dead by the year 2000. I can understand why the hunters object to the more austere interpretations of the counts."
When I point out that it is not a very tolerable situation that the hunters do not, to some extent, agree with the biologists, the Home Rule government's consultant answers: "A law will be passed, and they will have to follow it."
