Catching Puffins

Esbern í Eyðansstovu with dinner.

This video might upset you. As a matter of fact, if you are a nice and "human" human being, it probably will. I just hope for the right reasons, as I am a firm believer in hunting any kind of wild animal that are plentiful. Hunting for food, that is. In this episode we kill puffins, quickly and surely, but as years have passed, it is clear that this species is facing troubled times around the coasts of the North Atlantic.

Ronja drew me ...

On my visit to the Faroe Islands in 2009, the situation for the puffins were not as critical as it has later come to be, so the limited hunting that was going on, posed no threat to the population.
    What seems to be the problem for survival of this, and several other coastal birds, is the lack of prey in the sea. Overfishing may be the cause, or perhaps climate change. Possibly both ... to my knowledge it is uncertain. But what this story is about, is an old tradition of how to make do with scarce resources, done by the finest of people in the roughest of surroundings. As if the Faroe Islands were not isolated in themselves, this island is the the most remote of 'em all ...

If you're up to it, watch the episode - puffin hunting on Mykines - not for the faint-hearted!

As far as my experience goes, puffins hate solitude...

Mr. Oosterweijk's failed courtesy...

The Faroes is, no doubt, a tough place in more than one way, something my soon after good friend Henk Oosterwijk experienced when he sailed into Thorshavn in his tiny boat, flagging the "Dannebrog" - Danish banner - as his courtesy flag:

"Sogno de Oro" in Thorshavn.

    I spent quite a bit of time in Thorshavn, as you will see in later episodes. The town harbours (literally) a lot of interesting characters. Dutch Henk was just one of them. He continued around the world alone in his eight meter long (short) sailboat "Sogno de Oro".

He's looking at you, Henk!  ;)