Food Security in the High Arctic While Balancing the Demands of Commercial and Subsistence Hunting

Russian hunters-fishermen-tradesmen went to Svalbard during the 18th and the first half of the 19th century to hunt for marine mammals and fur bearing animals and were away from home for over a year. They were under considerable stress because of the need to be economically successful and to survive in the High Arctic. What were their food security strategies? How did they balance the subsistence hunt with the commercial hunt? In this article, data from different disciplines are used to analyse the food security strategies and explicate how they managed to balance the subsistence hunt with the commercial one in the High Arctic.