|
Post by Bjarki on Aug 11, 2013 14:25:52 GMT -7
It's good to know that whale hunting is regulated but 3-4 years is a long time. Hard to believe some people don't participate in the processing of them unless they're the elderly or are handicapped, in order to get their fair share of the bounty after such a long waiting period. Those old tool handles must be prized from so many years back. Great keepsakes. Is the whale skin slimy when first out of the water? Do you process it in any way before serving it on a tray as in the pic above, same question for the blubber? We are living quite far away from any whaling beach, which will give us any sort of meat and blubber, the closest one is in the capital 10 min away, but there are always 1000s who take part and thus the shares get a lot smaller. And from spotting a pod of whales til they are killed, it usually goes between 20 min to 1½ hour, but mostly in the lower minute count, and in those 20-40 min you have to first of all get the news, drop what you are doing, get into a car, drive like there's no tomorrow, and usually end up too late for the kill, and thus not getting a share unless there are enough to divide in the whole district (luckily I'm not in the same district as the capital, despite it closeness). The skin, while wet is quite slippery, sorta like a wet car. When dry it's just like a car tire. To end up on a plate like that it just has to be hung to dry for a couple of months(sometimes weeks weather permitting) and the sliced into thin slices. The blubber will is just salted, some dry salt it, others salt it in water(don't know the english wording for this). Then it is sliced into thin slices. Both being pretty much raw.
|
|
|
Post by garret on Aug 11, 2013 14:27:49 GMT -7
i always like to see the traditions of different cultures, especially ones that have been going on for a very long time like this
|
|
|
Post by cajunlady87 on Aug 11, 2013 14:34:59 GMT -7
We are living quite far away from any whaling beach, which will give us any sort of meat and blubber, the closest one is in the capital 10 min away, but there are always 1000s who take part and thus the shares get a lot smaller. And from spotting a pod of whales til they are killed, it usually goes between 20 min to 1½ hour, but mostly in the lower minute count, and in those 20-40 min you have to first of all get the news, drop what you are doing, get into a car, drive like there's no tomorrow, and usually end up too late for the kill, and thus not getting a share unless there are enough to divide in the whole district (luckily I'm not in the same district as the capital, despite it closeness). The skin, while wet is quite slippery, sorta like a wet car. When dry it's just like a car tire. To end up on a plate like that it just has to be hung to dry for a couple of months(sometimes weeks weather permitting) and the sliced into thin slices. The blubber will is just salted, some dry salt it, others salt it in water(don't know the english wording for this). Then it is sliced into thin slices. Both being pretty much raw. Ah, I see, those reasons do make up a difference. Silly me I'm thinking everyone lives near the coastline in eye view of everything happening at the moment. Preserving food in water and salt is called brining. Usually once they soaked the meat in this solution for a certain period of time they hung them up to dry or smoked them such a hams. Sometimes our elders preserved their meats for extended periods of time using that technique or submerging them in pig lard.
|
|
|
Post by Bjarki on Aug 11, 2013 14:35:27 GMT -7
I think we hear so much about endangered whales that your first thought is "Oh No! They killed whales!!!" But if they are of a type that aren't endangered then it isn't much different than harvesting any other fish. Plus it doesn't sound like it happens that often so they have time to reproduce. I love the idea that most everyone helps and then receives a share of the meat. We often hear arguments like "you are exterminating them! blabalablab!!!!!!" if that was the case then hunters in Montana would exterminate the deer population of all of North America, as we are only taking what swims past our shores and they are all over pretty much all oceans in the world. And all research says that we are taking less than 1% of the North Atlantic population each year, which is well withing limits. The shares go as this, largest at top. Finder in a boat, gets the largest whale or some smaller ones totalling the weight of the largest. If the pod is found from land and some other person in a boat is the first to the pod, then those two persons will share the finding whale. Authorities get a quite big share. Boats get a share, size depends on how many men are on board. Men on the beach get a share. If enough whales are found and killed then the shares will go to the entire district or beyond. It happend about a month ago, 267 whales got killed and got shared to an entire island. If this is the case then it doesn't matter if you were born 10 min ago, or are at deaths door, you get the same amount. It used to be also sleeping guests, but that part is not taking that much into consideration these days. A share also always goes to those who help, transporting dead whales from the beach to where they will get butchered, and getting rid of the carcasses in the end, these persons would most normally be part of one of the earlier groups as well. Almost always also, a decent share will go to old peoples homes, hospitals etc
|
|
|
Post by cajunlady87 on Aug 11, 2013 14:52:28 GMT -7
Here the process of soaking meat in salt and water is called brining. Usually after soaking for a few hours the meat is then hung to dry or smoked such as butchered hogs. Another process that was used long ago to preserve meat was to soak meat in buckets of lard as refrigeration hadn't been in the picture yet.
Interesting as to the allotment of shares, also interesting the authorities get a big chunk of the whale.
Thankyou so much for being patient in answering all my questions and sharing a part of your culture with us.
|
|
|
Post by Bjarki on Aug 11, 2013 15:01:50 GMT -7
Here the process of soaking meat in salt and water is called brining. Usually after soaking for a few hours the meat is then hung to dry or smoked such as butchered hogs. Another process that was used long ago to preserve meat was to soak meat in buckets of lard as refrigeration hadn't been in the picture yet. Interesting as to the allotment of shares, also interesting the authorities get a big chunk of the whale. Thankyou so much for being patient in answering all my questions and sharing a part of your culture with us. The authorities in question here are those who are overlooking the particular kill in question, making sure everything is going on in the right manner etc, figuring out the shares to everyone, making sure everything get's cleaned up afterwards and such. The law (which might be a bit outdated) says that during the election of a new whale district sherif and his subordinates, that no man under the age of 60 and above 18 can refuse the position if he is elected. In pratice though when there's such an election some guys step forth saying they want the position, just like in any election worldwide.
|
|
|
Post by crashdive123 on Aug 12, 2013 2:12:19 GMT -7
Great thread Bjarki. So glad to see that Paul Watson and the Whale Wars idiots did not change your traditional hunts or ability to feed your families.
|
|
|
Post by Bjarki on Aug 12, 2013 3:19:28 GMT -7
Great thread Bjarki. So glad to see that Paul Watson and the Whale Wars idiots did not change your traditional hunts or ability to feed your families. Thanks. The only thing they ever change (so far) would be the way of the kill, making us sitting down and thinking about how could we do it quicker and less "barbaric" so it is basically thanks to them that we aren't stabbing wildly at random with spears from the boats, but have figured out a way to kill a whale in less than 5 seconds.
|
|
|
Post by missasip on Aug 12, 2013 5:35:42 GMT -7
I think we hear so much about endangered whales that your first thought is "Oh No! They killed whales!!!" But if they are of a type that aren't endangered then it isn't much different than harvesting any other fish. Plus it doesn't sound like it happens that often so they have time to reproduce. I love the idea that most everyone helps and then receives a share of the meat. We often hear arguments like "you are exterminating them! blabalablab!!!!!!" if that was the case then hunters in Montana would exterminate the deer population of all of North America, as we are only taking what swims past our shores and they are all over pretty much all oceans in the world. And all research says that we are taking less than 1% of the North Atlantic population each year, which is well withing limits. Bjarki, though I think it is very cool that your country still depends on the ocean for your main source of protein, the comparison to deer hunters in the USA is not even close to being the same. Your whale hunting depends on the sea and mother nature to sustain the whale herd. The only thing you may do to sustain it, is any restrictions aka limits, on hunting your country may or may not have. If we used the exact same course of action, there would not be any deer in the USA. We proved that in about 20 short years with the Bison. Land animals have the ability to be "helped" by hunters and conservationists alike. There are currently more deer in the USA than there was even a few short decades ago. In my state alone there are estimated to be more deer than people. In 1950 or so only maybe 200,000 deer in the whole state. Now over 3 million. But there is even a problem with that. We mostly only hunt for sport, whereas your culture hunts for the meat. I have said for years our deer herd just in Mississippi needs to be culled intensively. I'm sure other states have an equal need. I doubt very seriously your small amount of whale hunting has any impact, on the that type of whale whatsoever, as you say less than 1%. If we could cull the herd here and do nothing but use the meat for people that need the protein in their diets, that would be the right thing to do. There is some of that type of meat sharing going on, but it's a small amount. I hope you enjoy your fresh and dried meat!!! I would love to try some! Jimmy
|
|
|
Post by Bjarki on Aug 12, 2013 5:54:17 GMT -7
Bjarki, though I think it is very cool that your country still depends on the ocean for your main source of protein, the comparison to deer hunters in the USA is not even close to being the same. Your whale hunting depends on the sea and mother nature to sustain the whale herd. The only thing you may do to sustain it, is any restrictions aka limits, on hunting your country may or may not have. If we used the exact same course of action, there would not be any deer in the USA. We proved that in about 20 short years with the Bison. Land animals have the ability to be "helped" by hunters and conservationists alike. There are currently more deer in the USA than there was even a few short decades ago. In my state alone there are estimated to be more deer than people. In 1950 or so only maybe 200,000 deer in the whole state. Now over 3 million. But there is even a problem with that. We mostly only hunt for sport, whereas your culture hunts for the meat. I have said for years our deer herd just in Mississippi needs to be culled intensively. I'm sure other states have an equal need. I doubt very seriously your small amount of whale hunting has any impact, on the that type of whale whatsoever, as you say less than 1%. If we could cull the herd here and do nothing but use the meat for people that need the protein in their diets, that would be the right thing to do. There is some of that type of meat sharing going on, but it's a small amount. I hope you enjoy your fresh and dried meat!!! I would love to try some! Jimmy The comparison with the deer hunters, was only for one state affecting the whole continent, it is physically impossible for them to do so. That being said the comparison is probably a bit off. And well I hate to call it hunting, as it isn't that despite what it looks like, it is as much hunting as grabbing a gun and shooting the occasional deer that wandered into your backyard, that's more of an opertunistic potshot or something As for trying it, sorry can't help you as we do not export it
|
|
|
Post by mountainmark on Aug 12, 2013 6:06:32 GMT -7
+1
I would love to try some someday as well!!
Personally, I would be ever-vigilant to not allow anyone with a video camera anywhere near the hunt, and be very careful about putting this stuff on-line. There are groups out there who would feel completely justified doing whatever they can to sabotage a whaling operation. Back when I was bringing cattle to the fairs the PETA "people" where an ever present threat. If you didn't watch closely after your cattle they would untie them and let them loose. Obviously not aware of the fact that without people the animal would die. We had to post watches all night long. Idiots. I have some folks in my family even who would probably donate to such a cause as disrupting your hunt. It's just a sad reality.
|
|
|
Post by mountainmark on Aug 12, 2013 6:09:17 GMT -7
[As for trying it, sorry can't help you as we do not export it Well, do you import Bunker members???
|
|
|
Post by insaneh on Aug 12, 2013 6:56:04 GMT -7
Great to have you back. Thanks for sharing.
|
|
|
Post by Bjarki on Aug 12, 2013 6:58:06 GMT -7
+1 I would love to try some someday as well!! Personally, I would be ever-vigilant to not allow anyone with a video camera anywhere near the hunt, and be very careful about putting this stuff on-line. There are groups out there who would feel completely justified doing whatever they can to sabotage a whaling operation. Back when I was bringing cattle to the fairs the PETA "people" where an ever present threat. If you didn't watch closely after your cattle they would untie them and let them loose. Obviously not aware of the fact that without people the animal would die. We had to post watches all night long. Idiots. I have some folks in my family even who would probably donate to such a cause as disrupting your hunt. It's just a sad reality. You can find plenty of footage of the kills on the net, and pretty much everytime it happens some new pics get put online. Every now and then protests flare up somewhere on the mainland, but it isn't something that is overly bothersom for us. Last year (or was it the last again? can't remember) the Sea Shepheard where around doing a documentary on us trying to cause riots and whatnots, it was rather pathetic to be honest, even if we had some idiots on camera as well. You can find the show on youtube by searching for "Whale wars viking shores" That being said, most organisations have figured out that they aren't doing any headway by protesting and the "extremist" tactics here, so every now and then some people come here and try "educating" the last bunch were a little group from WSPA, normally not people I'd associtate with, but the project they were working on was respectful and all. Trying to determine if it was possible to start whale watching tourism here, one of the results they managed was to start a facebook group, to which people in the country will post whalespottings (all whales, but main focus on orcas) and establish a phoneline so people could call them with spottings. They where here during at least one kill and didn't intevne in any way, but they caught a lot of flak from other organisations and groups for not doing anything. The benefit with being so isolated out here is, that you'll know pretty much straight away when the nutjobs arrive.
|
|
|
Post by ColcordMama on Aug 12, 2013 21:39:57 GMT -7
I love hearing about this sort of thing, and I'm so glad to have you back to share it with us. I'd love to try whale meat too, but I just can't afford a trip to see you, so I'll have to settle for chicken. HUG to you, Bjarki.
|
|