Puffin hunting

Really? Was planning a trip to Iceland with the family. I think we'll be going somewhere else now.

http://www.huntingiceland.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=9

I've been to Iceland twice and am planning a third trip (winters are warmer there than here.) And yes, I've eaten puffin there. It was OK, sort of like roast beef. It's just a bird, like a duck, afterall. You live in San Diego, a huge city with lots of resources. The menu possibilities for you are absolutely unlimited, and the relative cost is absurdly low. Things are quite different in tiny Iceland. For starters the entire interior is pretty much volcanic desert. Nothing grows there, no one lives there. There is a fairly narrow ring of green around the island but at this latitude there isn't much light most of the year so growing season is very short. They can't even grow wheat! Most of their food has to be imported and that's very expensive. So, they have to make the most of what meager resources they have. They have a few cows, but those are mostly for making dairy products. You will see some beef on the menu, but not much. The short growing season is about only good for growing grass. Islanders don't eat grass, but the sheep do. You will see lots of fish on the menu there, along with lots of lamb, plenty of horse, whale (locally fished only,) duck, and a few puffin either in Reykjavik restaurants or caught by locals in the countryside for their own family's consumption. Here in the Dakotas and your own Californy for that matter, we hunt ducks a lot. A wood duck is just as "pretty" as a puffin, but they too are considered table fare. I don't see anything "special" about puffin, especially from an Islanders point of view. The great thing about travel is we learn about people and cultures different from our own. As we learn more about them, we come to realize they are pretty much just like us, and if we lived where they do we would do the same. While you have everything, they have very little. I certainly don't begrudge these gracious and kind people a bird or two. Gud Blessi Island!


Kent in SD

Take a look at the website, Kent. This is not a few poor people shooting Puffins because they are starving. I find it kind of ironic that after you've killed your limit of 100 Puffins, you are invited to dine on the finest cuisine that Iceland has to offer. These people are shooting Puffins for nothing but the fun of it. To quote their Website "Food & Accommodation: We operate these hunts out of Reykjavik. We offer first class hotels only. The clients can indulge in the cuisine of our fine Reykjavik restaurants during their stay". I don't buy your hardship story. These birds, like many others are disappearing from the planet. Only after they're gone do we wonder what happened. You have to wonder why Iceland is the only country in the world where you can shoot these birds. It's because all of the other countries realize that these birds are worth more than just target practice. I don't mind when poor people have to hunt for food . That's not what this is. Don't kid yourself. Nobody is buying it. I'm sure there are lots of wonderful people there, and a few a holes too. Just like here and just like in the South Duhkoty. Here in the USA we've taken steps to make sure that there are and will always be plenty of Ducks around both to watch and to shoot. I've also done my share of world travel and there are good things and some not so good things about how every country treats it's wildlife. I don't eat shark fin soup when I'm in Asia. I don't eat the fried baby birds when I'm in Thailand. I don't eat the Turtle soup when I'm in South America. Enjoy your Puffin, Kent. Hopefully they will outlast all of us.

Seems the problem may take care of itself in the end. At this rate and for any number of reasons there may just be no birds left.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/puffin_hunting_in_iceland_breeding_collapse_due_to_climate_change.html

Again, I'll go back to what I learned and experienced, from actually spending time there. There are very limited resources in Iceland. There are very few jobs available as a result. They used to have a thriving fishing business, but when they had to compete with the megafleets of Norway, Canada & U.S. the fishing industry there virtually collapsed. They used to sell a lot of sulpher, but then more accessible and cheaper sources were found elsewhere. They used to sell a lot of wool, but the wool market has virtually collapsed partly due to new synthetic fibers. They can grow virtually nothing there except grass. They have very little industry, very little retail, very little of anything. They are a country of about 300,000 people in an isolated place trying hard to make a go of it as an independent nation. Tourism of all kinds is about their best bet. I have no doubt the people behind the hunting & fishing outings are just mom & pop types, and almost certainly are out of work fishermen. If they can entice a few wealthy Europeans to come out there to shoot a few birds, I have no reservations about it. Being a small country, Island is very careful with what resources they have, and there's NO WAY they would allow any bird population to be seriously impacted. Keep in mind I come from a small population state where hunting actually is a major contributor to the economy. Sure, pheasants are pretty, as are wood ducks and pintail ducks for that matter. It doesn't bother me that rich people from Californy come here, drop a lot of cash, and shoot a few birds. It's nowhere near on the scale in Island as it is here. I would bet your own state has more hunting guide operations in just a few counties than all of Island does for that matter. As for Iceland being the only country that allows puffin hunting, I don't think that's true. When I ate at one of the "fancy" restaurants in Reykjavik, the one down the hill from the cathedral, I talked to our server about it. She said they had been buying frozen puffin from Greenland lately. I think I recall that they also hunt them in the Faroes as well. They're just birds, like ducks. As long as it's being done responsibly I don't see what the issue is. A California state website is showing your own state allowed the hunting of what has to be tens of thousands of waterfowl there just last year. It costs a ton of money to hunt in California, too. http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/waterfowl/shoot/13/week5.html There's just no way they're shooting anywhere near as many waterfowl (including puffins) in Island as they are in your own state, and that no doubt pales to how many we shoot in my state. As for Iceland, it's my favorite place on the whole planet (have not been to Antarctica yet.) If it weren't for the confiscatory tax rate and scarcity of "good" jobs, I probably would have moved there a couple of years ago. The people there are very similar to the ones in the Dakotas, even have a similar accent.


Kent in SD

The biggest cause of bird population decrease in recent years was the ash deposit from their recent volcanic eruption. I was out there just after that happened and talked to a biologist from Denmark about it (interesting guy!) That stretch of the southeast coastline looked like a gray concrete parking lot. The population of puffins and other sea birds was actually up that same year in the Hebrides, where I've also been. The Hebrides are further south than Iceland, so who knows. BTW, for what it's worth, after researching a few of the stories I've read there, I've never considered Slate to be a credible source.


Kent in SD

Spent a couple of hours reading up, and emailed a couple of people I know in Iceland. Seems the BIG problem is the water temperature on the southern edges of the water are now too warm for the puffin favorite nursery food--sand eels. This is a major problem all over most of the Atlantic as even the Maine colonies are in major decline. There are still good numbers of puffins nesting on the north edge of Iceland, which is in a different ocean current (most of Iceland is in the Gulf Stream, and Iceland is actually a pretty warm place in winter.) Iceland has stopped hunting of puffins in the breeding grounds of the islands along the southern coast, mainly to preserve breeding pairs in hopes the cold current returns or the birds seek newer/colder nesting locations to the north. So there you have it--Iceland is acting like any responsible government and keeping a close watch on wildlife populations and adjusting as needed. There is no way they will allow any wildlife to disappear, if that's in their control. As for "rich hunters," from what I've heard from the people I know in Iceland there just aren't that many of them to really have any effect. The problem is environmental. (And I checked and the Faroe Islands also allow puffin hunting.) While Island does have tons of oceanic birds, I mostly go there for the stunning scenery and the great people. In our travels my wife & I have found another island where there seemed to be a good population of nesting puffins that you can get very close to. How close? My wife was lying on her stomach taking a photo of one poking its head out of a burrow, and another one landed on her butt! I have no idea how many birds there were on that very small island, had to be tens of thousands of at least a dozen species. You have to pay someone $$ to haul you out to the island as no one lives on it. If the weather were to suddenly turn bad you could well be stuck too! I'm not really a "bird" guy but I have to say I was very impressed. Keep in mind I'm used to seeing waterfowl by the tens of thousands in my own state but was still impressed. All in all, Iceland is more interesting to me. There's a lot more there than just birds.


Kent in SD

I am also used to seeing waterfowl by the tens.... or even hundreds ... of thousands here in CA. The resource is managed to be sustainable throughout the USA. Everybody wins. I have no problem with hunters that want to shoot a few Ducks for the dinner table no matter how pretty they are. The Atlantic Puffins have been in decline for many years. There really is no way to manage them as a sustainable resource other than to keep an eye on their numbers and allow the population to maintain itself at a healthy level. If populations are healthy I don't mind if some of the Icelanders want to catch a few for their own dinner table. It's when they decide that it's a good business opportunity to import hunters from around the world to shoot them for sport that I have a problem. Like many of us, I was raised in a family on the end of a long line of many generations of hunters. Shooting birds on a cliff face with a shotgun is not hunting, it's target shooting. As another rich Californian I get to vote with my wallet. There are lots of other beautiful places, also full of very nice people... that protect Puffins and will use some of my tourist dollars to continue to do so.http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/farne-islands/wildlife/ for example. In any case, it looks like things are on hold there until the numbers come back.