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One of the most important focuses for scientific study in the Alaskan offshore area has been the bowhead whale. The bowhead whale, distinctive for its huge, comb-like baleen and thick blubber, migrates annually between the Canadian Beaufort Sea and the Bering Sea. This large whale is vitally important to Eskimo subsistence hunters and coastal villages in Alaska that are located along the migration route. It is protected by laws of the United States and is considered an endangered species.
In 1972, the International Whaling Commission requested information on the bowhead population, hunting pressure, and trends after noting the absence of data on the size of the Bering Sea bowhead population and details of subsistence whaling. As a result of the IWC’s concern and the lack of data, the bowhead whale census was started in the spring of 1976. The last complete whale census was conducted in 1993. It determined that there were about 8,200 bowheads increasing at a rate of about three- percent per year. This year’s whale census was a cooperative effort financed by the North Slope Borough and the National Marines Fisheries Service with a donation from British Petroleum. Key to the census effort, is the support of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the Barrow Whaling Captains. With the understanding of the importance of the census to whaling activities and wanting to learn more about the spring bowhead whaling, Albert Barros, Alaska OCS Regional Community Liaison, volunteered to assist the whale census program for 15 days. Albert, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, grew up on his reservation and participated in tribal hunting and fishing activities. He understands the relationship between the Inupiat and the Bowhead whale. "The whale hunt is an essential part of Inupiat culture not only for food but because of the significance and symbolism of the hunting, the teamwork, the leadership and knowledge required, the rite of passage and acceptance, acknowledgement of place in the community and the process for community-wide distribution of the whale after a successful hunt. The gift of the whale itself to the hunters is part of the inter-relationship of man and nature, Albert said." Albert was given the opportunity to participate in the two different methods for "double counting" the whales. The first method is done visually by counters standing on "the perch" watching for whales moving through the open leads. It takes a good eye to see the whales surfacing in the leads which may be up to one mile across or closed entirely. It seems odd to say that it takes an effort to spot a mammal weighing up to 60 tons and reaching a length of 65 feet but the bowhead is quite illusive. The second method, developed by Dr. Chris Clark of Cornell University, uses hydrophones in at least three sites to locate the whales by triangulation from the sounds the whales make as they pass the station. "We know some whales pass without making a sound because we see whales and don’t hear them on the hydrophones. We also know that some whales pass under the ice because we hear them and don’t see them, so by a combination of the two methods, analyzed by statisticians, we can come up with an accurate count," Clark said. |
The
bowhead whale migration is an annual spring event when the whales
begin their migration up through the Chukchi Sea and into the
Beaufort Sea for the summer. They pass by Barrow in late April
through May as they travel in three pulses or "three schools" as the
Inupiat whalers put it. This is when the Inupiat conduct their
spring subsistence hunt for bowheads as the whales pass by Alaska's
North Slope. 