Bowhead Whales and Alaskan Eskimos: a problem of survival

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Gambell, Ray
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1983
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; Balaena mysticetus; Bering Strait; eskimo*; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400021665; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400021665

The hunt for Bowhead Whales Balaena mysticetus has for centuries been a tradition in the culture of coastal Alaskan Eskimos. Commercial hunting began in 1848, when the first American whaling vessel, under Captain Thomas Roys, worked northward through the Bering Strait and started pelagic whaling in the Arctic Ocean. This fishery ended about 1914, because of severe depletion of the stock. However, Eskimos continued to hunt the remaining whales, using traditional boats and skills augmented by methods and equipment acquired from Yankee whalers. They still carry on the hunt today, using essentially the same methods; the right of native Alaskans to hunt in this way is permitted by US domestic legislation relating to marine mammals and endangered species (Mitchell and Reeves 1980).