Archaeologia Islandica - 01.01.2015, Page 70

Scott Riddell
seal incidence in Icelandic waters between
the modern surveys and historical records
(Hauksson & Bogason 1997). Harp seals
arrive in the winter months and remain
until the spring coincident with the arrival
of migratory capelin in Icelandic waters
(Hauksson 1986; Hauksson & Bogason
1997; Folkow et al. 2004). The latter part of
this period is also coincident with whelp-
ing and mating on the sea ice around Jan
Mayen (Ronald & Healey 1981; Hauksson
& Bogason 1997). Therefore, based on the
age range data from the modern surveys,
it is possible that juvenile, non-breeding
animals linger in Icelandic waters to feast
and mature on a diet of capelin (Hauksson
1986; Hauksson & Bogason 1997) while
adult harp seals abandon the area to give
birth and mate on the sea ice in the Green-
land Sea; as is possibly intimated by the 19*
century account of the annual Eyjafjörður
kœpahlaup (Kristjánsson 1980, 333).
That 20* century counts of harp seals
are low and dispersed in comparison with
the historical archive could be explained
by the decimation of the harp seal popula-
tion in the Greenland Sea by Scottish and
Norwegian sealers during the 19* century
(Wilkinson & Wadhams 2005). Further-
more, the recent recovery of the Jan May-
en stock is inhibited by current changes
in climate that hinder the development
of the specific sea ice required for whelp-
ing (Johnston et al. 2012). There is also the
simple fact that the harp seal hunt came to
an end in Iceland during the late 19* cen-
tury and with it, any incentive to monitor
harp seal numbers (culled or otherwise)
combined with the fact that the areas where
the harp seal fishery was most active have
since become depopulated (Hauksson &
Bogason 1997).
Conclusion: Climate, sea ice and
hard times?
That harp seals have occupied Icelandic
waters in association with sea ice in the
past is a fact. There may or may not be a di-
rect correlation between the two variables
but given that harp seals are also known
to occupy Icelandic waters in the absence
of sea ice, it is likely that they are not and
that there is something more fundamental
at play. It is proposed that, as modern harp
seal migratory habits have been linked to
the distribution of capelin in Icelandic wa-
ters, this may be the basis for the presence
of harp seals in the archaeological record
and may also be responsible for the conti-
nuity of a specific type of harp seal cull in
the past, particularly in northeast Iceland
(Guðmundsson 1944, 164-67; Kristjánsson
1980, 360-63; Hauksson 1986; Hauksson
& Bogason 1997; Folkow et al. 2004). The
persistence of this cull and the regulatory
and economic framework that surrounded
it suggests that this was not simply an op-
portunistic, subsistence activity driven by
hard times (Guðmundsson 1944, 164-67;
Kristjánsson 1980, 360-63). The notable
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