Lead Agency: USDC National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Arctic; Chukotka; Chukotka Peninsula; eskimo*; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.648.2785; http://www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/protectedresources/whales/bowhead/deis/2012/deis061512.pdf

2013 through 2017 or 2018, under the Whaling Convention Act, and a cooperative agreement with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC). Under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) approves overall five-year or six-year subsistence catch limits for the Western Arctic stock of bowhead whales based upon the needs of Native hunters in Alaskan villages and in Russian villages along the Chukotka Peninsula. On an annual basis, NMFS can issue the AEWC the Alaskan share of this catch limit. The subsequent hunt is managed under the Whaling Convention Act, cooperatively by NMFS and the AEWC. The purpose of this action is twofold: to manage the conservation and subsistence utilization of the Western Arctic stock of bowhead whales (as required under the Marine Mammal Protection Act [MMPA], the Whaling Convention Act, and other applicable laws) and to fulfill the Federal Government’s trust responsibility to recognize the cultural and subsistence needs of Alaska Natives. The IWC will conduct its next meeting in June and July 2012 in Panama City, Panama, and based on the management advice of the IWC Scientific Committee, is likely to adopt a catch limit at the same levels as the previous five-year period. Alternative 3B is the Agency’s preferred alternative. Alternative 3B would