Suchergebnisse

Seals have carried an essential role in the unfolding of Greenland as an Indigenous homeland, colonized territory, and self-governing nation. During the past many decades, seals have also been a topic of controversy between international political actors, animal welfare groups, and Inuit communities. This doctoral thesis explores Kalaallit [Greenlandic Inuit] relations with seals as they arise in these historical and contemporary political landscapes. By tracing 'the seal' through various narrative trajectories in Greenland, the thesis engages with the complex processes through which coloniality and Indigenous lifeways collide and interweave. While dominant narratives on Inuit seal hunting – such as those forwarded in the EU Seal Regime – seem to undermine lived and place-based Kalaallit-seal relations, Kalaallit narratives of seals also unsettle the very same 'seal regimes'. Suggesting that narratives encompass and navigate relations between Kalaallit, Qallunaat [non-Inuit], and seals, the thesis examines how seal narratives engage and unsettle processes of colonization in Greenland. This article-based doctoral thesis consists of four academic articles. Each article is based on a specific, focused study which has emerged from the research process of 'tracing seal' in Greenland. The four articles span topics that relate to colonial and postcolonial sustainability narratives, processes of Kalaallit seal hunting, and the seamstress work of creating Greenlandic regalia. One of the articles, specifically, deals with the methodological process of undertaking this thesis research. By paying attention to the various ways in which seals are engaged, narrated, and part of Kalaallit 'worlding', the articles destabilize the tendency to reduce diverse Kalaallit-seal relations to simplified narratives within European conceptual vocabularies. Empirically, this research is based on different materials that are generated from seven months of fieldwork in Greenland, from archival research, and from Greenlandic media sources. It draws substantially on interviews with hunters, seamstresses, and other persons whose professions relate to seal hunting or sealskins in Greenland. Theoretically, the thesis seeks to elaborate on postcolonial theoretical applications in contemporary studies on Greenland by engaging decolonial and Indigenous scholarships from within and outside of the Arctic. The thesis suggests that this is a necessary move in order to unsettle colonial research relations in Arctic scholarship and make way for other modes of thinking, knowing, sensing, and being in knowledge production. This approach transpires into the methodological framework of the thesis which works, auto-reflexively and practically, to interrogate and disrupt researcher positionality, academic privileges, and borderland transgressions in the claims to knowledge on Greenland. Altogether, the thesis engages with the very process of 'tracing seal' as a way to explore the theoretical and practical tracks for Greenlandic decolonization.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Who Are the Navy SEALs? -- Before There Were SEALs -- History of the SEALs -- After the Vietnam War -- Types of SEAL Missions -- Operations of Freedom -- SEAL Team Locations -- Training to be a SEAL -- Notable Navy SEALs -- The Proud but Few -- Modern Missions and the Future -- Glossary -- For More Information -- Index.

The Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is one of the most endangered and rarest seals in the world. The current population size is ca. 370 individuals, and the Saimaa seal is the only endemic mammal in Finland. The national conservation strategy and action plan for the Saimaa ringed seal was adopted in 2011 to improve the conservation status of the species. Even though the previous conservation efforts have been successful the seal still is endangered. The current seal population might overcome detrimental effects of a singular threat, but the combined effects of different threats may still be fatal to the population. The ongoing project LIFE Saimaa seal (duration 2013-2018) was targeted to reducing the key threats and problems identified in the conservation strategy. The objectives of the project were to reduce risks especially related to fishing, human induced disturbance, and climate change, thus helping to improve the conservation status of the species. The goals of the project were to produce updated knowledge on e.g. home range of seals and the potential threats, to reduce by-catch mortality, to adapt to the climate change by adapting a method of man-made snowdrifts to improve the breeding habitat during mild winters, and to reduce human-induced disturbances on seal. The project contributed to the development of the updated Conservation policy together with relevant parties for safeguarding more favourable environment for the seal in the future, and the results of the project have been used in the updating of the conservation strategy in 2017 and related fishing regulations in 2016. The Saimaa Seal LIFE project approached the protection of Saimaa ringed seals from a variety of different angles and searched solutions through the joint efforts of several partners. Overall awareness about the seal and its conservation is a key for effective conservation work. The project produced a wide range of information for the planning of the protection measures as well as communication and environmental education to various target groups. Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland coordinates the project that is implemented together with eight national project partners. The project budget is 5.26 million euros, of which the share of EU funding is ca. 3.95 million euros. ; peerReviewed

Brief summary "of the discovery, exploitation and eventual conservation of the fur seal herd"; description of the present governmentally controlled regime, based on observations in 1949; and remarks on problems of the future, computation, biological factors and other questions needing further study.