Inuit Mussel Gathering

Here’s another incredible clip from the Human Planet series:

Here Artic Inuit gather mussels beneath sea ice during extremely low tides.  This activity is a tradition that goes back generations in Kangiqsujuaq, on Quebec’s Ungava Peninsula.

What I found very interesting is that this activity is harder to do with climate change.  The Inuit are also having to make other changes, as the BBC reports:

“There is anecdotal evidence that travel in the arctic – by snowmobile especially – has becoming more hazardous as sea ice is thinner year by year.  As a result, dog sledding – in decline for years – is making a comeback. ‘Dogs are more reliable in the unpredictable weather,’ says Human Planet director Nicolas Brown. ‘They can always find their way home, possessing a virtually infallible internal navigation system that works even in a blizzard. Dogs also can smell thin ice. And, he adds, a stranded arctic traveller can eat dog meat, if desperate. ‘More than one of the famous explorers has resorted to that solution.'”