July 9, 2024 – Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada

Finally got to go out on a boat in Frobisher Bay. An older gentleman from Kingston, Ontario and I went out with Jovan from Koolrunnings.

Before we boarded the 22 ft motorboat, Jovan asked us, “How do you feel about seal hunting?”

Neither of us objected after he told us the seal would be used for dog food. Jovan has 18 Inuit sled dogs.

The trip was mainly to spot wildlife, enjoy the scenery and be out on the glassy bay. It was a calm, windless day with sunshine.

We saw sea birds, ducks, harp seals, ring seals and a beluga whale.

We went toward some ice floes where we saw the whale and Jovan shot a harp seal. But, when we got to the area where the seal was there was no seal, just a lot of blood and globules of fat. The seal had probably sunk.

So, we did more scenery seeing. Later, we saw another harp seal with it’s head up out of the water and Jovan shot it. This one didn’t sink and I helped Jovan pull the 200 lb seal into the boat.

That was enough sightseeing so we went back where Jovan cut the seal up and his Inuit wife fed the dogs. Jovan said the dogs do a lot better when they eat meat than they do on kibble. Kibble, or simple dry dog food, is expensive here so Jovan probably does better too.

Beautiful day if you weren’t that seal.

Cheers