Catch it, kill it, cook it! – a conference with a difference
18th October 2022
Fancy yours with chips? Seal tenderloin is sustainable, delicious and an environmentally friendly choice, the conference was told, prior to sampling sessions for the delegates. (Photo: Canadiansealproducts.com)
Keynote speakers including the head of fisheries at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Manuel Barange, Árni Skaale, minister of fisheries of the Faroe Islands, and a variety of hunters and scientists from countries ringing the Arctic spoke at a conference organised by the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMC) in Torshavn, Faroe, earlier this month.
The conservation discussions, however, centred around how the sustainable consumption of sea mammals can help to further understanding of their dynamics and migration, and assist in conservation.
Scientists from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and universities from countries including Japan, Sweden, Canada and Norway provided results of research findings that working with indigenous hunters had enabled.
At the two-day meeting, attended by delegates from the NAMMC’s membership – Iceland, Faroe, Greenland and Norway – attendees were also able to see several cooking demonstrations, and taste products from a number of the mammals that have supported indigenous communities’ survival on the Arctic rim for thousands of years.
A highlight was a Canadian presentation on seal steaks, a ‘superfood’ from a seal population that is not only booming as a result of reduced predation from polar bears but that is, said Romy Vaugeois of the Canadian Seals and Sealing Network, ‘good for you, good for the environment’.
This story was taken from the archives of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.
