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Space Science

Traditional Inuit Ice Treks Guided From Space 26

Posted by michael from the seems-like-cheating dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "When the Arctic floe melts at spring, the Inuit are going for thousands of years to its edges for fishing and finding game. Now, they are helped by the European Space Agency (ESA) and its satellite which provide accurate maps of ice and its extent. These maps are also useful for tour guides and to improve safety. "The ESA-backed Northern View Floe Edge Information Service provides regularly updated ice maps of inlets around Lancaster Sound, part of Baffin Bay within Canada's Nunavut Territory. Users can access maps from the Floe Edge service directly via a dedicated website, or else consult printouts posted for the public by the local Parks Canada Office." This overview contains more details and references. It also includes an image generated by the Northern View Floe Edge product showing ice conditions."
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Traditional Inuit Ice Treks Guided From Space More

Traditional Inuit Ice Treks Guided From Space

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  • My Brain Has Imploded (Score:4, Funny)

    by Undefined Parameter ( 726857 ) <fuel4freedomNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Friday February 20, 2004 @07:40PM (#8345395)
    When the Arctic floe melts at spring, the Inuit are going for thousands of years to its edges for fishing and finding game

    In the future, the Inuit are now going to the edges of the Arctic ice floe. That's hard enough to wrap my mind around, but then you tell me that they are now going for thousands of years. I guess they really do need that ESA help--imagine how long they'd be going to that floe edge without some satellite maps!

    Seriously, though, this is very cool. Melting ice is rather dangerous to be on, no matter how many years of experience you have walking on it. It looks like these maps might help save some lives.

    ~UP

    • Seriously, though, this is very cool. Melting ice is rather dangerous to be on, no matter how many years of experience you have walking on it. It looks like these maps might help save some lives.

      Reminds me of the Niven book "Fallen Angels" in which space-based microwaves are used to assist the travel of the astronauts across the glacier. At one point they strip their clothes off because it's so hot, and meet some Eskimos who are astounded that people can walk naked in freezing weather.

      • Troll? Please explain.

        Oh, right, moderators can't post. But that just doesn't make sense. Niven has a knack for predicting the future wrt technology; I can imagine governments helping their citizens in the very near future by beaming low-power microwaves at them so they can more easily migrate over frozen territory. These Eskimos in the topic are doing just that, migrating to find food. It ties in exactly with Niven's book.

        Would it have been less of a troll if I had provided a link? [amazon.com] Seriously, I

  • ... at a MOCA (LA) exhibit ...

    About 4 or 5 hours of footage from an Inuit family, on the ice. I don't think it was edited too much - loooong shots of the entire days work, hunting on the ice, preserving each precious bullet, skeeting across various ice sheets in odd conditions. It was shot in what seemed to me to be extremely close digital, and it was a beautiful work. Very blue.

    I'll never forget it, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called, or who did it. But the Inuit lifestyle out

  • Fishing? At the floe edge? (Score:4, Informative)

    by FlyingOrca ( 747207 ) on Friday February 20, 2004 @08:10PM (#8345634) Journal
    Not much fishing to be done there! Polar cod are tiny, and about the only fish I've seen the Inuit go after are lake trout and char, anyway.

    Hunting at the floe edge is pretty good, though, usually for seal and walrus. Tons of fun.

    Take me back to my childhood in Resolute and on Hudson Bay...

  • "Traditional"?!? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by El ( 94934 ) on Friday February 20, 2004 @08:32PM (#8345807)
    At the point where you start using satellite data, doesn't it really cease to be a "traditional" Inuit Ice Trek?

    • Re:"Traditional"?!? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by FlyingOrca ( 747207 ) on Friday February 20, 2004 @10:29PM (#8346619) Journal
      The whole "hunting at the floe edge" thing is traditional. The Inuit, whose survival skills and ability to adapt appropriate technology are nothing short of astounding (the stories I could tell!), have been augmenting their traditions with new tech whenever it becomes available.

      I remember back when the first "game radios" (SBX-11s) came into use; suddenly hunters could talk to people back in town. They've saved more than one life over the years.

      It's an interesting thing, though, the impact of modern tech upon traditional hunting and fishing. Many people here in Canada argue that people from First Nations should have the same hunting and fishing rights (unrestricted, essentially) as their ancestors.

      Mine's an unpopular viewpoint, but I think that's only HALF-right. Unrestricted hunting and fishing with traditional tech, fine. Modern tech, modern restrictions.

      That being said, from what I've seen, the Inuit seem to have a pretty good grasp of managing their natural resources as sustainably as they can manage. Cheers!
      • Mine's an unpopular viewpoint, but I think that's only HALF-right. Unrestricted hunting and fishing with traditional tech, fine. Modern tech, modern restrictions.

        I'm a white boy born and raised in the north. Grew up in the middle of all the native traditions, so, I like to think i've got a pretty good exposure to both sides of the equation on this issue.

        I could not agree more strongly. I have absolutely no qualms with allowing year round unrestricted fishing and hunting using the technology and meth

    • Re:"Traditional"?!? (Score:4, Funny)

      by addaon ( 41825 ) <addaon+slashdot.gmail@com> on Saturday February 21, 2004 @12:03AM (#8347067)
      That depends if you use the traditional Inuit satellites, or the new-fangled white-folk ones.
    • When it comes to survival, nobody cares if their great-grandparents followed a certain procedure to maintain sustenance, if you don't adapt, darwin will get to you...
    • Because it implies the Inuit as living in an untouched, pure, primal state (or something of that nature). The Inuit have always had a practice of incorporating new technologies into their practices, if it worked.

      Just as American Major Leagues baseball is considered traditional, even though technologies and rules have changed since its incept over a hundred years ago, the Inuit Ice Trek is still an Ice Trek if the Inuit continue to call it that.

      Once they start calling it "Ice Trek, the Next Generation" or

  • Ice Trek (Score:4, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Friday February 20, 2004 @08:56PM (#8346030)
    "Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a subsistance hunter!"

  • Tense, people. (Score:2, Offtopic)

    by mikedaisey ( 413058 )
    "When the Arctic floe melts at spring, the Inuit are going for thousands of years to its edges for fishing and finding game."

    "Have been" rather than "are". Could someone just give these submissions ONE editing pass? Please? It really does encourage sense, and it makes this place look a lot less like a fly-by-night garbage pit.

    • Re:Tense, people. (Score:2, Informative)

      by FlyingOrca ( 747207 )
      Um... bear in mind that, given the submitter's name, he's probably French-Canadian. IIRC tense works a bit differently in French. At any rate, he's doing a better job speaking my language (and yours) than I would do speaking his. Of course, YMMV. ;-)
  • Or not as it becomes slashdotted ;)

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