There’s a legend told among the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic that all the animals in the sea are controlled by a mermaid-like goddess called Taluliyuk. The story goes that she was thrown off a canoe by her angry father and when she tried to cling onto the side, he cut off her fingers and they became the whales, walruses and seals that populate these icy waters. It’s said that if she is angered by humans not respecting the environment, she will entangle all the marine mammals in her long hair, helping them evade hunters and thereby stopping them from providing isolated communities with much-needed food, clothing and tools.
On a cold day in early summer, while floating in the waters of Baffin Bay wearing a black dry suit and lobster-shaped gloves, it occurred to me how easily I could be mistaken for a half-woman, half-fish sea creature. Thankfully, I still had all my fingers - though that might not be the case if I’d stayed in the
