– A few pictures from a day out, seal hunting –
– Ingkasi shot a seal that was lying on the ice, at this breathing hole –
– My dogs can smell the blood and are already looking forward to their evening meal –
– We left the seal there, covered by snow, to pick it up on the way home –
– Ingkasis dogs –
– Later, at the ice edge, the dogs are hanging out in the sun while we are looking for seals –
– A perfect day 😉 –
– Ingkasi shot another seal, before we headed back home. We had some of it for dinner the following day, and it tasted great. The dogs got their part, too. 🙂 –
Outside Ittoqqortoormiit 
Wonderful pictures and a Wonderful day
🙂
Hello Ruth, God 17. mai! Und Waidmanns Heil an Ingkasi! Very nice pictures of your hunt.
I would be very interested – like many others, I presume – to learn about the technicalities of ice edge hunting. Can you tell us, e.g., how do you prevent shot animals from sinking in the water (or do they float?).? Does the ice at the ice edge taper, or is it a clearly defined edge? How thick would the ice be there? Is it difficult to get a boat (like the hunting dinghy that we saw at Walrus Bay) into the water – would there be a sheer drop, or can you find “launching sites”? Do polar bears or walrus get “interested” in your seals?
Oh well, I guess I’ll have to come and take a look for myself 😉
Thank you for keeping your blog going!
Best regards,
Jörg
Hello Jörg, I hope you had a great 17. mai!! It was the day we left for Dombrava, and I was thinking at my friends in Norway. – Well, yes, I think you should come back and have a look yourself 🙂 but I can try to answer your questions quickly, today. It depends on what kind of animal you hunt, but seals usually float in autumn, winter and spring, because they have a thick fat layer. In summertime, it happens more often that they sink before you can reach them by boat. The ice edge is usually quite defined. But new, thin ice can build up quickly, or drifting ice can move so close to the edge that there`s hardly any open water left. How thick – that very much depends on how “old” the ice at the ice edge is. The hunters usually find a way to get the boat into the water quickly. Where it is not possible (very uneven or thin ice, huge icebergs/drop etc.), they would usually not hunt. Polar Bears certainly can get interested in our seals. They sometimes come for them at night, when everything is quiet in camp. We have experience this both in 2013 and 2014 (you can find posts about this in the blog archieve). Thanks for your interest, and thank you so much for the USB!! Greetings, Ruth
Hello Ruth, sorry – I only now saw your reply! I had relied on some e-mail notification, and I’ve been rather busy these past weeks. Will mail you later. Best regards, Jörg
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