At the end of May, Associate Professor Jen Harland took part in a roundtable discussion at the Arctic Congress in the Faroe Islands.
She participated in a conversation about Whales for sale?: The diverse and current complexities of commodifying cetaceans, with Dr Sonja Åman (University of Oslo), Sadie Hale (PhD student, University of Bergen), and Professor David Anderson (University of Aberdeen). Jen discussed her current work on the opportunistic historical pilot whale hunts in Orkney and Shetland, as well as discussing the historical uses of stranded whales across Scotland.
While these animals mostly had a commodified value within the recent past in Scotland, their importance often extended beyond the financial to include the use of food in times of dearth, as well as societal benefits to the community. The conversation included parallels from other opportunistic historic whaling cultures, as well as discussions of how whales are still commodified today, including by the burgeoning whale watching industry.
The team were fortunate to get a personal guided tour of the whaling station museum at við Áir, built by Scottish-Norwegian company Christian Salvesen of Leith. Scotland’s own whaling stations have not survived and this is last and only preserved 20th century example of these shore stations (other than those surviving in the Antarctic region).
The Faroese provided an outstanding welcome to their islands, their culture and their language throughout the conference, and the delegates were well looked after throughout.
