Guga

January 29, 2012 7:05 AM

The Guga Hunters Of Ness. (SLVimeo)

Every year 12 men from the tiny village of Ness in The Outer Hebrides of Scotland set sail to harvest Gannet, in the face of strong opposition, as they have done for hundreds of years. The full film screens in NYC on Saturday 4th February.

Previously.

posted by veryape (8 comments total)

Given that you can eat wood pigeon all over Britain, I wonder why this should cause particular controversy. Seabirds are cuter maybe?
posted by nangua at 7:38 AM on January 29, 2012

Yeah, they should address the industrial before taking on the artisanal.
posted by jsavimbi at 8:00 AM on January 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Must something good in guga meat if they've lived to do it for hundreds of years! (/gets coat)
posted by Abiezer at 8:24 AM on January 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Gannet - It's what's for dinner - Once a year and not for you!
posted by Samizdata at 8:58 AM on January 29, 2012

Towards the end, This.

Its critics were "modern suburbanites who have still not gotten over the assumption that he knows best how to live on the periphery." He added: "In a way, you're depriving a low income society of its right to exist. "

Some people can only get upset about the petty kinds of injustice at the far ends of the world that are so small and meaningless as to not affect, much less benefit, them in the least. What injustice there might be in these kinds of causes is irrelevant; all that is required is something vaguely upsetting, villains who superficially do not resemble them, and no clear way in which they might be at fault. When so many of us live lives that are fundamentally evil in their negligence, I suppose it is so much easier to peck at the motes in the eyes of others.
posted by Blasdelb at 10:07 AM on January 29, 2012 [4 favorites]

I have friends on an island where fulmar eggs are a delicacy. Collecting eggs is a bit of a hazard. Not merely do fulmars live on the island's dizzying sea cliffs, but they also have a spectacular and revolting defence mechanism: they spew up rancid fish oil on anyone that gets too close. Consequently, fulmaring clothes are kept outside, as far from the house as possible, and preferably downwind. The smell is, uh, unique.

The fulmar population is large, and they've started to nest close to the roads by the island's harbour. It's a bit disconcerting hearing these seabirds horking up in readiness as you walk by.

At least they're not as bloody annoying as the skuas and terns, though.
posted by scruss at 10:37 AM on January 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Guga don't appear to be threatened. I can't imagine why anyone would have an legitimate issue with this, though there are several generations of people who now believe meat comes plastic wrapped from the supermarket . As for taking one or two blows to the head, there are much more cruel methods of hunting.
posted by Xoebe at 1:01 PM on January 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

The only two choices for the future I hear of 1) are stop everything we are doing because we are doing it wrong, and cease being human, or 2) just call it a day. So I just do my best and take it as it comes. To me, barbarian is not killing wild things with old ways, barbarian is killing old ways with wild things: factories, refineries, mass production. Civilized seems awful brutal compared to this. But this is where a momentum is taking us without recourse.

Now, I'm open to the possibility of surprise, something unexpected, even perhaps awesome. As long as its not aliens earth has to unite together and fight.

Because while I can take us as humans, stomaching us as a dedicated war-machine species would be too much to ask.

How about something really great and really unexpected?

I don't know what that is but that's what I like about it. When it comes to the unexpected working out for everyone we actually have a chance as everyday it seems more unimaginable and unlikely.
posted by Mike Mongo at 8:07 PM on January 29, 2012 [1 favorite]