Blue Futures Pathways Expedition: Newfoundland and Labrador – Update 2
We visited Rigolet on Tuesday morning to meet SOI alumni Jacqueline. She is an Inuit research coordinator with Sustainable Nunatsiavut Futures, a project out of the Ocean Frontier Institute, co-led by the Nunatsiavut Government, Dalhousie University and Memorial University, that looks at the impact of the changing environmental conditions in the Northern communities.
To engage the team, Jacqueline had set up a seal harvesting workshop. We tasted some seal meat, and learned how to skin the ring seal using an Ulu, a traditional Inuit knife, with the help of Inuit participants and educators. It’s harder than it looks! Seal skin has many purposes, including for warm clothing like pants, mitts, and parkas. They’re also used decoratively for jewellery and other items.
Alex, the Inuit cultural educator on our expedition team, showed us how to tune the qilaut (the Inuit drum) and performed a couple of traditional songs. Rosemary and Maiya joined Alex in singing. Alex also showed us the similarities and differences of cultural clothing from her home area, Qikiqtaaluk region, compared to Nunatsiavut.
Our visit reminded us that what comes from the ocean needs to sustain many communities.
That afternoon, after doing a tour of the ship and learning about marine navigation from educator John Cross of the Marine Institute, we saw icebergs as we sailed toward Battle Harbour. They were mesmerizing! We slowly sailed past the Herring Islands and saw thousands of puffins and other seabirds. That evening we had a music night at the ship’s hangar. An impromptu collaboration between musician Kellie and youth participant Rosemary led a new song that mixes Inuit throat singing with folk-pop music.
The next morning, the dive team collected seaweed samples in the waters around Battle Harbour. We then visited the town, which was once a commercial hub for salt cod. Battle Harbour was heavily impacted by the cod moratorium of 1992, but through a restoration and re-skilling process, the Battle Harbour Historic Trust now offers seasonal employment in the tourism sector to locals. We also collected water samples to look at microplastics, and did a bit of swimming as well! On board the ship, the dive team showed us what they found underwater in the morning, and we had group reflection sessions.
On Thursday, we visited Red Bay National Historic Site. In the 16th century, the Basque people hunted right whales for oil that lit up towns in Europe. The community had worked hard to get a UNESCO World Heritage designation to recognize this history and received that in 2013. Today, the overall right whale population is severely depleted, and there’s no whaling anymore in Red Bay.
“Red Bay is all about tourism now,” says Mayor Wanita Stone. Approximately 12,000 tourists visit the town in a year.
We spent the rest of the day pressing seaweed and plants in the ship’s lab and listened to botanist Paul share about the plants he saw on our expedition so far. Next stop, Gros Morne National Park!