Bloody Whale Slaughter in Canada

(Baffin Island, Canadian Arctic) Native Inuit hunters from Pond Inlet on Baffin Island found a pod of more than 200 narwhal whales stranded and trapped by winter ice.


Narwhal (Monodon monoceros)
Typically, the native hunters are allowed to harvest a yearly limit of 130 narwhals for food but since the stranded animals are unlikely to survive the winter, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has authorized the slaughter of the entire pod.

Interestingly, Inuit tradition speaks of the legend of the abused Inuit woman who became a narwhal. To escape her violent husband, the Inuit wife with luxuriant hair fell into the water when her husband came after her. She came out of the water at the mouth of the river after transformation into a narwhal with a long tusk. Legend has it that her hair had been extended to its full length and became twisted like a corkscrew in the rapids, thereby explaining the corkscrew twist of the narwhal's tusk.

The bloody killings started last Thursday and hunters are expected to complete the slaughter in the next few days. One must wonder about the Inuit symbolism of the hunters killing the reincarnations of their missing and abused wives and whether it affects the vigor with which they approach the task of culling.

Tip: Charley Nestor