It has not been long that this reviewer was to review John Gillett's memoirs as a sealer in the Newfoundland seal hunt (Gillett 2015). From the same publisher now comes an additional volume dealing with the controversial commercial seal hunt still carried out in Atlantic Canada. However, while Gillett's account stretches into the present, Shannon Ryan presents an oral history of the seal hunt up until 1950. This date has not been chosen incidentally, but it marks the end of the Newfoundland seal hunt to become the Canadian seal hunt, given that Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949 (page 42).

The present volume is subdivided into two major parts, plus an introduction and a short conclusion by the author. It consists primarily of interviews that were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s with sealers, business workers associated with the sealing industry and others one way or the other engaged in the seal hunt. The outcome is a deeply moving insight into the conditions of the large-scale, indeed highly commercial seal hunt which can no longer be compared to the still ongoing, much smaller scale hunt.

But this volume is much more than a reproduction of interviews. It is a window into the past of Newfoundland as a whole as the interviewees present a plethora of different facets of the living conditions on an island which has been subject to the harsh north Atlantic climate. This is particularly the case in the first of the two major parts, entitled Long interviews: setting the stage. Here, as the title implies, interviews, or to be more precise, monologues, of the interviewees stretch over several pages and open up the sealing industry as a historical and crucially important industry for the economy and identity of the island and for the islanders. For example, the accounts of the sealers themselves who engaged in the hunt on the large steamers that found their introduction into the hunt in the early 20th century offers an insightful account of the human dimension of this activity, often labeled as ‘barbaric.’ From an ethnographic perspective these accounts are invaluable as they make the motivations behind the hunt, the interaction between the sealers and the dangers which they were exposed to more understandable.

The ethnographic importance of this work is emphasised by the second large part of this book, Interview extracts with selected topics. While indeed the first 120 pages set the stage, the second part of the book serves as a work of reference and the reader is able to understand the cultural dimension of the seal hunt for Newfoundland. Here, especially the keywords such as ‘accident’, ‘danger’, ’death’, ‘Newfoundland disaster’, the darkest year in Newfoundland sealing history when 273 sealers lost their lives in 1914, or ‘storm’ stand out. Many interview partners refer to these, signifying the harsh conditions under which the seal hunt was, and still is, conducted. But also other keywords, such as ‘berth’, a prerequisite and much aspired part for a sealer to participate in the seal hunt, or ‘food’ make Ryan's interview compilation an important tool to further engage in ethnographic studies of the seal hunt. This is in particular relevant for a comparative angle on the issue, especially when it comes, for example, to conflict and resolution thereof or competition. Interestingly, Ryan's interview partners show that this was a serious issue in the large-scale seal hunts of the early 20th century. However, 100 years later, it is rather the notion of sharing than competition which shapes the interaction between sealers (Sellheim in press). This points to significant differences in the characteristics of the hunt: while Ryan unveils the inherent business-nature of the sealing industry, contemporary hunts are rather to be located within a ‘making-a-living’ narrative as procured by Gillett (2015) and others in Newfoundland.

The first 40 or so pages of The last of the ice hunters are a brief summary of Ryan's treatise The ice hunters (Ryan 1994). Here, the reader is provided with core information on the history of the Newfoundland seal hunt that enable him/her to understand the presented interviews and data in a much better way. Indeed, without such introduction and without prior knowledge about the history of the hunt and the industry the reader would be lost. However, it seems as if Ryan or the publisher do expect the reader to have at least some knowledge on the hunt and Newfoundland culture anyway. For example, reference is made to the ‘Front’ (for example on page 40) on several occasions in the book, however without explanation. The ‘Front’ refers to the waters northeast of Newfoundland as an historical distinction to the ‘back’, the Gulf of St Lawrence. Or, Ryan refers to ‘brewis’ (page 34), a specific type of hard bread, that the reader may not be familiar with. While certainly nothing major, the structure and content of the book in combination with these minor editorial issues do not make The last of the ice hunters a stand-alone work. Yet, this does not seem to be the intention in the first place. After all, in the Conclusion Ryan notes that he has tried to do ‘justice to their [the sealers] careers and lives in the sealing industry [. . .] by publishing The ice hunters (1994) and now by inviting them to speak for themselves’ (page 427). In other words, the present volume is best understood when read in conjunction with Ryan's earlier work.

However, the historical value of this work cannot be underestimated. While more of general interest to the readers of Polar Record, The last of the ice hunters sheds light on the socio-cultural value of the seal hunt for the island of Newfoundland. It is therefore an important contribution to the ethnographic study of this controversial hunt whose political dimension has direct effects on (sub-)Arctic livelihoods. But in order to gain more general information on the hunt, especially in its contemporary form, this reviewer would suggest to turn elsewhere. But for historians, anthropologists and other social scientists this book is certainly truly interesting.