The quota for subsistence bowhead whale harvest will remain the same for northern Alaska communities for the next six years, creating more certainty for hunters, local officials said.
During a meeting on Sept. 24, the International Whaling Commission extended catch limits for aboriginal subsistence whaling countries, including Alaska’s subsistence bowhead whale harvest, according to the IWC’s statement. This was the first year the commission used a new automatic extension procedure for hunting quotas, created in 2018 and intended to provide more predictability to whaling communities, said Ryan Wulff, U.S. commissioner to the IWC, in a prepared statement.
The decision was met with support from Alaska leaders, whalers and residents.
“The Commission’s action today allows us to continue providing for our people without the stress of this hanging over our heads,” Crawford Patkotak, Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission vice chairman, said in a speech following the decision. “It increases our confidence level with this body that our voices are heard. Our people are so few and getting to this point is a huge milestone for us. The bowhead whale has been the center of our culture for thousands of years.”
“It is a big milestone, the quota,” Point Hope Elder Steve Oomittuk said. “They always had to fight for the quota. ... That history goes way back, to the struggles our people have to go through, fighting people that are telling us when we can and when we cannot hunt when it’s always been our way of life.”
Yesterday, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) reaffirmed our Strike/Catch limit for the next six years! This is...
Posted by North Slope Borough on Tuesday, September 24, 2024
The International Whaling Commission began setting quotas for the bowhead whale subsistence harvest in the 1970s.
The agency put a moratorium on whaling and then a strict limit of 12 whales a year in 1977, based on an understanding that the bowhead counts were low. In response to the restrictions, Iñupiat whalers formed the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and offered new methods of estimating the bowhead population, based on aerial surveys and hydrophone equipment. The count went up significantly, which helped raise the harvest limit and prompted the collaboration between scientists and Iñupiat hunters that has been fruitful since.
[From 2022: Sharing traditional knowledge, Inupiat hunters advance whale science]
In 2018, the commission created a new process to automatically extend quotas for hunters in six-year blocks. The extension happens if three conditions are met: 1) if the quotas haven’t changed; 2) if the scientific committee advised that these quotas would not harm the whale stocks; and 3) if the commission determined that the aboriginal subsistence whaling governments have complied with the agreed timeline and the information they provided represented a status quo continuation of the hunt.
The new approach was used successfully for the first time last week, intended to start re-establishing trust between hunting communities and the commission, according to the IWC.
The decision was not opposed by any country, which is a milestone in itself, Oomittuk said, because in years prior, the quotas for whaling were a center of debates within the commission.
This year, a delegation of 14 Alaskans attended the IWC meeting in Lima, Peru, including the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission staff and commissioners, the North Slope Borough mayor and the borough’s Department of Wildlife Management staff.
“The uncertainty of our quota renewal has been a burden to us for as long as I’ve been around,” said Josiah Aullaqsruaq Patkotak, North Slope Borough mayor, at the IWC meeting. “The North Slope Borough scientists have worked hard to demonstrate what our Elders already knew, which is that the bowhead stock is healthy, and our hunt is sustainable. The recognition by the IWC member countries that our hunt is a right and not a privilege makes this a great day for our whaling communities, and gives assurance to our culture and food security into the next seven generations at least.”
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in a statement congratulated Alaska whaling communities on the quota renewal.
“This event was a pivotal opportunity to educate our global partners and our own federal government about our whalers’ priorities,” Sullivan said. “Today, we celebrate the preservation of subsistence whaling, a cultural practice our Alaska whalers have sustainably conducted for thousands of years.”
The current catch limit was set to expire in 2025. The extension for the period from 2026 to 2031 is now 392 bowhead whales, which will keep an annual quota of 56 whales a year. The number is set in accordance with the population, as well as with the health and abundance of the whale stocks.
The news about quota renewal came at the start of the fall whaling season in Utqiaġvik.