Traditional Inuit Ice Treks Guided From Space

Roland Piquepaille writes "When the Arctic floe melts at spring, the Inuit are going for thousands of years to its edges for fishing and finding game. Now, they are helped by the European Space Agency (ESA) and its satellite which provide accurate maps of ice and its extent. These maps are also useful for tour guides and to improve safety. "The ESA-backed Northern View Floe Edge Information Service provides regularly updated ice maps of inlets around Lancaster Sound, part of Baffin Bay within Canada's Nunavut Territory. Users can access maps from the Floe Edge service directly via a dedicated website, or else consult printouts posted for the public by the local Parks Canada Office." This overview contains more details and references. It also includes an image generated by the Northern View Floe Edge product showing ice conditions."

Comments

My Brain Has Imploded

[Undefined Parameter]

When the Arctic floe melts at spring, the Inuit are going for thousands of years to its edges for fishing and finding game

In the future, the Inuit are now going to the edges of the Arctic ice floe. That's hard enough to wrap my mind around, but then you tell me that they are now going for thousands of years. I guess they really do need that ESA help--imagine how long they'd be going to that floe edge without some satellite maps!

Seriously, though, this is very cool. Melting ice is rather dangerous to be on, no matter how many years of experience you have walking on it. It looks like these maps might help save some lives.

~UP

Fishing? At the floe edge?

[FlyingOrca]

Not much fishing to be done there! Polar cod are tiny, and about the only fish I've seen the Inuit go after are lake trout and char, anyway.

Hunting at the floe edge is pretty good, though, usually for seal and walrus. Tons of fun.

Take me back to my childhood in Resolute and on Hudson Bay...

"Traditional"?!?

[El]

At the point where you start using satellite data, doesn't it really cease to be a "traditional" Inuit Ice Trek?

Re:"Traditional"?!?

[FlyingOrca]

The whole "hunting at the floe edge" thing is traditional. The Inuit, whose survival skills and ability to adapt appropriate technology are nothing short of astounding (the stories I could tell!), have been augmenting their traditions with new tech whenever it becomes available.

I remember back when the first "game radios" (SBX-11s) came into use; suddenly hunters could talk to people back in town. They've saved more than one life over the years.

It's an interesting thing, though, the impact of modern tech upon traditional hunting and fishing. Many people here in Canada argue that people from First Nations should have the same hunting and fishing rights (unrestricted, essentially) as their ancestors.

Mine's an unpopular viewpoint, but I think that's only HALF-right. Unrestricted hunting and fishing with traditional tech, fine. Modern tech, modern restrictions.

That being said, from what I've seen, the Inuit seem to have a pretty good grasp of managing their natural resources as sustainably as they can manage. Cheers!

Re:"Traditional"?!?

[addaon]

That depends if you use the traditional Inuit satellites, or the new-fangled white-folk ones.

Ice Trek

[AtariAmarok]

"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a subsistance hunter!"

Re:Tense, people.

[FlyingOrca]

Um... bear in mind that, given the submitter's name, he's probably French-Canadian. IIRC tense works a bit differently in French. At any rate, he's doing a better job speaking my language (and yours) than I would do speaking his. Of course, YMMV. ;-)