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Out in the most northern points of Europe, imported foods
are a rare and expensive commodity, so your best bet is to
catch your own, and hunting and fishing form a huge part of
the social experience as well as the major industry in these
cold and icy lands.
Don’t look now, Santa...
Reindeer along with seal is a staple food in
Iceland and Greenland. The herds run wild and out in the Arctic
wilderness there is little else to eat. However, it has become
an increasingly fashionable leisure sport, attract small groups
of western tourists where you can book on 3 or 5 day hunting
tours. The season for Reindeer hunting is August to early
September.
Reindeer live on Iceland’s east coast. Rain wear, thermals,
hiking boots and a 6.5 - 8mm hunting rifle are needed for
a successful shooting spree.
After killing the reindeer, you need to slit the throat to
let the blood run out and the tie the oesophagus. This brings
up the food the reindeer has been eating which is partially
digested. An accumulation of gas starts inside the intestines
so this needs to be tied this before the animal is slaughtered.
This needs to be done to ensure a good quality of meat.The
butcher would probably drag the carcass to clean snow to do
the butchering. In the olden days when the people in Greenland
didn’t have any vegetables, eating the undigested grass
from the stomache of the reindeer was a form of vitamin source
of green, Vitamin C.
In winter the reindeer graze on lichens, in summer time they
graze on everything green that grows. Then finally they are
grazed upon by man, the last predator in the chain.
Ice fishing
Traditional Inuit ice-fishing is easy to do but you need to
buy a non-resident licence from a tourist office, hotel or
police station.
The gear you’ll need to ice fish is quite specialist
and expensive, and you will almost certainly need to hire
or buy an Auger (large drill to cut holes in to the
ice), a Spud (wedge shaped ice pick), a chain saw,
a Split shot (lead weight), a jigging rod (simple
fishing rod), and a tip up ( a hook which’ll set
you back around $5). If you’re after bigger fish, you’ll
need more heavy duty specialist gear to cut bigger holes in
the ice.
The sort of fish you can expect to catch in the sub zero waters
include Perch, Pike, Walleye and Blue Gill.
A unique fish to be hooked is called nipisek nipisek
which means "the one that is stinking". It is caught
only in the spring and eaten raw, so it makes a great lunchtime
snack . It doesn’t actually stink but it is very tasty
and healthy and it thought to give you a long life.
Ice fishing is a hardy and gruesome sport, very different
from fly fishing. Take care when ice fishing, hypothermia
carries a high risk of death if you fall in the icy waters
where survival times are estimated between 20 mins to 90 mins
and hands sieze up in around 2 minutes. Carry an ice auger
or long fishing pole to attempt a rescue and make sure anyone
who falls in the water is given warm clothing and warm drink
straight away (but never alcohol which dilates blood vessels).
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