Greenland’s Inuits Urge EU to Reverse Seal Ban and Save Traditional Way of Life

The gamey, fishy aroma of barbecued seal will be assailing the nostrils of gourmet MEPs in Strasbourg this week.
Greenland’s Inuit chefs, clad in sealskin outfits and trousers fashioned from polar bear fur, will not be offended if MEPs decline morsels of the whiskered marine mammal from the grill. But the chefs hope that their planned cookery session will help to convince European lawmakers to reverse what they regard as a misguided ban on the importation of seal products that is driving a centuries-old way of life to the edge of extinction.
Exports of seal pelts have plummeted by 90% since the introduction of the European ban in 2009. The impact on subsistence economies in Greenland’s 60 coastal communities has been catastrophic. Karl Lyberth, a hunter who used to be Greenland’s minister of fishing, agriculture and food, says “It’s a tragic situation for us." “A lot of people in the EU don’t understand our way of life.”