While leading a National Audubon trip to Greenland and Iceland in the early 90s, the group and I attended a dinner where puffin was served. The (whole) roasted birds were elegantly arranged on the buffet table among the slabs of caribou and walrus. It was a strange menu for an Audubon group. Having just rescued two baby puffins in the ship swimming pool earlier that day, I couldn't bring myself to try it. We visited on town in Greenland where the meat aisle in the grocery store had seal, walrus and miscellaneous birds packaged in plastic wrap and barcodes, just like you'd buy a roast chicken in Stop & Shop! Gina In a message dated 7/8/2010 9:37:26 P.M. GMT Daylight Time, ghanisek@rep-am.com writes: Not only puffin eggs but puffins themselves are regularly eaten in Iceland. >From Wikipedia: "Their meat is commonly featured on hotel menus. The fresh heart of a Puffin is eaten raw as a traditional Icelandic delicacy..." As Roy noted, even though Atantic Puffins barely have a toe-hold in the U.S., they're quite abundant in their overall range. Because of personal quirks, one of my favorite TV shows is "Bizarre Foods With Andrew Smithern." He did a show from Iceland once in which he went out with locals when they caught puffins out of the air at a nest cliff using very long-handled nets. And of course later cooked and ate them. Quite tame compared to the huge spiders, palm grubs and poison puffer fish he's usually consuming. The Scotsman Gordon Ramasy also caught and cooked puffins on one of his TV food shows once, causing a stir until it was revealed it happened in Iceland, where it is quite legal. Greg Hanisek Waterbury ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roy Harvey" <rmharvey@snet.net> To: <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 2:19 PM Subject: Re: [CT Birds] Puffin Eggs >I don't think it is an issue. > > The chef lives in Denmark, and the article mentions puffin eggs coming > from Iceland. As the article linked below says, "It is estimated that > around 3 million pairs breed in Iceland each year – that´s 6 million > puffins but only 70% of the total are breeding birds. So the total > population of puffins in Iceland is between 8 and 10 million birds." The > human population of Iceland is around 318,000 and I suspect puffin eggs > have been on the menu there for as long as there have been people in > Iceland. > > http://iceland.vefur.is/iceland_nature/wildlife/puffins.htm > > Roy Harvey > Beacon Falls, CT > > --- On Thu, 7/8/10, diana johnson <dianaajohnson@aol.com> wrote: > >> From: diana johnson <dianaajohnson@aol.com> >> Subject: [CT Birds] Puffin Eggs >> To: ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org >> Date: Thursday, July 8, 2010, 1:39 PM >> I was rather shocked to see "Puffin >> Eggs" on the front page of the Dining section of the New >> York Times Wednesday, as part of an article entitled "A >> Nordic Chef explores his backyard." I was shocked because it >> was the New York Times, always so pc, but am I wrong to be >> concerned?? >> >> >> Diana Johnson >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological >> Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in >> Connecticut. >> For subscription information visit >> http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org >> > > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) > for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit > http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org _______________________________________________ This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org