There is a new opportunity at the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission. The Secretary General of NAMMCO position is open for applications. You can find more information on the NAMMCO website (ww…

We are delighted to announce that Seals, Stigma and Survival received continued support from the Nordic Institute in Greenland for Phase 2 of the project, which will commence in the autumn. Thank you for all who participated in Phase 1, including NAMMCO and Innovation South Greenland for their support, participants, observers and administrative staff at our host institution, the University of Southern Denmark.

Out now in The Polar Journal is a new open access piece by project principal investigator Danita Burke, "The EU’s role in legitimising the stigmatisation of sealing and sealers". Seal hunting is a polarising topic, and the European Union’s 2009 ban is arguably the most high-profile and impactful statement against the practice of seal hunting on the world stage.

Seal hunting is a polarising topic, and the European Union’s 2009 ban is arguably the most high-profile and impactful statement against the practice of seal hunting on the world stage. At the same ...

On April 21st, 2026, the Network in Canadian History & Environment published an interview by Heather Green with Seals, Stigma and Survival principal investigator Danita Catherine Burke. In the interview Dr. Burke discusses the project, the inspiration behind it and why it's so important. If you would like to read more, please check out the full interview on the Network in Canadian History & Environment | Nouvelle initiative Canadienne en histoire de l'environnement website. Many thanks to Heather Green and NiCHE for the opportunity to raise awareness about your project.

Researcher Danita Burke examines stigma from anti-sealing activism, highlighting cultural harm, community impacts, and integrating traditional knowledge to reshape policy debates.

Earlier this year, Dr. Danita Catherine Burke shared a research post with NiCHE discussing the Seals, Stigma and Survival Project. We wanted to know more about this project and about Danita's research...

With all the difficult geopolitical news related to Greenland, the obvious anthropological gaze on autonomy is from the ground, based on people’s lived experience on land and sea. Together wi…

On March 23rd, 2026 Seals, Stigma and Survival secondary investigator Erik Kielsen has an opportunity to sit down with the vice chairman of the national fishers/hunters organization KNAPK, Jens Peter Kielsen in Qaqortoq, Kalaallit Nunaat. In the short but impactful conversation with Erik, Jens Peter stresses the historic and continuing importance of seals for hunters and locals in Southern Kalaallit Nunaat.

On March 2, 2026 Erik Kielsen attended the Arctic Forum: Food at Umeå University in Sweden representing Seals, Stigma and Survival and Innovation South Greenland. The Arctic Forum on Food brings together researchers, policymakers, Indigenous knowledge holders, and innovators to explore two critical questions: How can we ensure sustainable, healthy and culturally grounded transitions in a rapidly changing world? And what role might food and Indigenous knowledges play in transitions?

Project observers are predominately individuals who have participated in the project either as an interviewee or through conversations and insights. At present there are 35 observers to Seals, Stigma and Survival and on January 26th, 2026 there was an opportunity to engage with them about the Year 1 progress of the project. In advance of the meeting all observers were provided a draft copy of the Year 1 preliminary progress report to review.

Missed PI Danita Burke's presentation of the new Routledge book Greenpeace in the Circumpolar North: Lessons Learned from the Anti-Sealing Era? at the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh? You can check out the presentation below. Please note the Q&A portion was not recorded.

Project partner, Innovation South Greenland, and secondary investigator Erik Kielsen are taking the lead in raising local, regional and international awareness of Southern Kalaallit/Greenlandic Inuit hunting practices and diet. As part of their work Innovation South Greenland has recently published a new report, Inuit Food, which aims to provide people with an easy to engage with summary of key sources of local food in the South Kalaallit Nunaat region.

Bang — one dead seal out of a population of about 7,500,000. For over 50 years, Canadian marine mammal scientists have studied the harp seal herd off the

Archival research at Laurier Archives supported Seals, Stigma and Survival, examining environmental, anti-sealing activism records impacting northern communities and economies.

With the seal population on the rise in eastern Quebec, local businesses and hunters are hoping to take advantage and grow the market for seal meat and seal-derived products.

Quebec sealers are praising a new federal pilot project to expand personal-use seal-hunting licences to Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick — and an animal welfare group says the move is 'not reall...

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You are invited to attend the January 23, 2026 virtual book launch of "Greenpeace in the Circumpolar North: Lessons Learned from the Anti-Sealing Era" (Routledge 2025) by Dr. Danita Catherine Burke hosted by IASH, The University of Edinburgh

Book Launch: "Greenpeace in the Circumpolar North: Lessons Learned from the Anti-Sealing Era" Friday - 23 January 2026 - 11:00am - 12:00pm EST Register Here Online launch of Dr Danita Cathe...

You are invited to attend the virtual book launch of Greenpeace in the Circumpolar North: Lessons Learned from the Anti-Sealing Era (Routledge 2025) by Seals, Stigma and Survival principal investigator Dr. Danita Catherine Burke. The book launch event is hosted by the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh where Dr. Burke was a Northern Scholar Visiting Fellow from 2023-2025 while working on the manuscript.

Wow! 2025 was another record year on our site for traffic. We published nearly every week day, sometimes publishing on Saturdays and more than once a day! We are so grateful to the environmental histo...

This book explores Greenpeace’s efforts to expand its engagement in the Circumpolar North in the 21st century and how this work is affected and informed by the organization’s controversial legacy of a...

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On November 4th, 2025 secondary investigator Jim Winter spoke with Dr. Mike Hammill and together they explored Hammill’s experiences working out of the Quebec region on seal research as a top scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Part 2 of the Winter-Hammill interview covers themes such as changes in seal breeding and migration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, seal-fish and seal-shark relationships and their ecosystem implications, and differences between grey and harp seal adaptability.

This book explores Greenpeace’s efforts to expand its engagement in the Circumpolar North in the 21st century and how this work is affected and informed by the organization’s controversial legacy of a...

"Seals, Stigma and Survival" principal investigator Dr. Danita Catherine Burke was interviewed by Oscar Noach of the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark and together they discussed her project “Seals, Stigma and Survival: Finding Solutions to the EU Stigmatization of Seal Hunting" and her new book out now with Routledge Greenpeace in the Circumpolar North: Lessons Learned from the Anti-Sealing Era…

On November 4th, 2025 secondary investigator Jim Winter spoke with Dr. Mike Hammill and together they explored Hammill’s experiences working out of the Quebec region on seal research as a top scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Part 1 examines Hammill’s time working in the Canadian Arctic, observations on the impact of climate change on seals and their ecosystems and work on pup production.

This is Part 2 of the interview Dr. Garry Stenson and Jim Winter, conducted on November 4, 2025. Part 2 picks up with a focus on Stenson’s work on behalf of the Government of Canada supporting its World Trade Organization case against the European Union and its trade ban on seal products. Part 2 also explores topics such as the impact of climate change on seal ecosystems and health, the media’s in impacting perceptions seals and the complexities of the Canadian government’s approach to supporting seal-focused research.

On November 4th, 2025 “Seals, Stigma and Survival” secondary investigator Jim Winter conducted an interview with retired Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientist Dr. Garry Stenson. Winter, a previous employee of DFO, was once Stenson’s colleague and together they discuss Stenson’s decades of work for the Canadian government leading seal research off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and working with national and international partners on seal-focused research.

The interview with Juha Ylimaunu was conducted by PI Danita Burke remotely on November 13, 2025. If you would like to know more about Ylimaunu's work, you can access his dissertation - "Itämeren hylkeenpyyntikulttuurit ja ihminen–hylje -suhde" or "The sealing cultures and the human-seal relationship of the Baltic Sea". Is is published in Finnish on the University of Helsinki website…

On October 9th, 2025 “Seals, Stigma and Survival” secondary investigator Jim Winter, a retired award winning CBC journalist, conducted an interview with Mike Kehoe. Kehoe previously worked for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador as a director of marketing support services navigating the province’s challenges with the fallout for anti-sealing activism on the fisheries industry. Given its length, this interview is broken up into two parts.

For our Weekend Video, we bring you a deep dive into the future of Greenland. A BBC World Questions debate recorded in Nuuk brings together Minister Naaja Nathanielsen, Danish MP Louise Elholm, Greenl...

Check out the new Seals, Stigma and Survival discussion paper - "Acknowledging and Addressing the Absence of Greenlandic Input into the EU’s 2024 Public Consultations on the Fitness of its Trade in Seal Products Regulations" - available now on the SDU Arctic website. Authored by PI Danita Burke and SI Erik Kielsen and supported by the core project team of Kristina Svels, Helena Gonzales Lindberg and Jim Winter, the new discussion piece is an introductory piece that aims to spark a discussion about the European Union’s (EU) approach to consultations on the fitness of its trade in seal products regulations.

A new book is out now by “Seals, Stigma and Survival” principal investigator Dr. Danita Burke titled "Greenpeace in the Circumpolar North: Lessons Learned from the Anti-Sealing Era" published by Routledge

On October 9th, 2025 “Seals, Stigma and Survival” secondary investigator Jim Winter, a retired award winning CBC journalist, conducted an interview with Mike Kehoe. Kehoe previously worked for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador as a director of marketing support services navigating the province’s challenges with the fallout for anti-sealing activism on the fisheries industry. In his past roles Kehoe participated in backroom discussions with industry and government players across Canada, and engaged with local community members in rural and coastal Newfoundland and Labrador seeing in real-time the impacts of anti-sealing activism, federal and provincial responses and the first European ban (European Economic Community) on seal products in 1983 and activism against sealing thereafter.