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: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Bering Strait; Reeves; Yankee; Balaena mysticetus; 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...