Alaska Eskimo group seeks hike in whaling harvest quotas

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Rachel D'oro, Associated Press
Updated 3:27 pm, Friday, September 15, 2017

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission is seeking a significant increase in the number of bowhead whales that can be harvested annually by subsistence hunters from 11 villages.

The commission wants yearly strike limits raised to 100 from the current 67 strikes, commission Chairman John Hopson Jr. says in a statement to federal officials reviewing the catch limits.
 
Hopson says the current limit was set in 1997, when the bowhead population was half of today's estimate.

Thursday was the deadline to submit public comments as part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration review on catch limits for the Alaska Native communities for a six-year period to begin in 2019.



Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Alaska-Eskimo-group-seeks-hike-in-whaling-harvest-12201437.php

[Coventina]

1. Ick. No. Just....no.

[jpak]

2. I saw a dead bowhead in the Bering Sea back in 2003

At first we that thought it was a capsized vessel leaking fuel.

But it was the fins sticking out in an odd way and the slick was from decaying blubber.

Bowheads can live to be 200 years old - my thought at the time was that it was wounded in a subsistence hunt and later succumbed of its wounds.

[Kaleva]

3. Far too many issues involved which prevents most of us from making an informed opinion.

[paleotn]

7. No.

[FLPanhandle]

19. Not at all

Humans have decimated whale populations. Some species are trying to come back but are far far from their original levels.

No need for this at all. Period.

[cntrfthrs]

26. excellent observation...

[janterry]

4. This makes me very sad

[alphafemale]

5. It's not like this is needed for survival anymore for them.

So...Bullshit.

Hell NO!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. You might want to look up the definition of "subsistence."

[alphafemale]

9. Almost sounds like.....Casinos nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Yeah, those bingo halls are raking it in.

[Yupster]

11. Hell no

We don't need to kill whales and neither do they.

[NickB79]

15. Do you live hundreds of miles from a grocery store too?

Because if you're speaking from experience, cool. You can tell us about what it's like driving your snowmobile 2 days across snow and ice to pick up a $10 loaf of bread. If not, you aren't contributing value to this thread.

[pennylane100]

23. If one lives that far from a grocery store, surely there are more efficient ways of

avoiding trips of over a hundred miles to pick up a loaf of bread. There are freezers on the market that would allow months worth of food to be stored safely. This would also seem more practical and cost effective than driving in bad weather for two days, and a lot more humane that taking a boat out to kill a poor whale.

While there may be valid reasons to increase the number of whales to be killed, I do not think that saving a two day trip to the grocery store for a loaf of bread is one of them. It also adds nothing of value to this thread except to wonder about how the mindset of one who would consider it a necessary way to save a trip to the store for a loaf of bread.

[NickB79]

24. You do realize what subsistence living means, right?

I used the example of a two-day trip to point out the remote nature of these communities. I used $10/loaf of bread to illustrate the high cost of purchased foods in these areas, areas where poverty is the norm. Sure, stock a freezer with groceries. You'd need to spend thousands for enough freezer space to sustain a village. Then thousands more for overpriced fuel to run the generators, since there often isn't a grid nearby. THEN spend thousands more to buy the groceries, along with fuel for your vehicles to transport it. That, or hire a bush pilot to fly it in (also expensive).

To boot, you're living in a region that doesn't allow gardening, so your primary source of local food is what you can shoot or catch.

This isn't about convenience. Without hunting, these communities and their culture die out in a few generations.

[pennylane100]

25. Yes, I do know what subsitance living means.

I remember as a child walking in the snow with holes in my shoes that allowed the slush from melting ice to almost freeze my feet off. I remember eating sugar sandwiches for supper as that was the only item on the menu. During my childhood, I went from living an upper class life to living in an orphanage so I really do understand subsistence living, just not the impact it would have in remote communities in Alaska, which is why I agreed that if the quota of whaling needed to be raised, it should be.

What I was ridiculing it, was your suggestion that a person would have to experience a two day ride in the snow to buy a loaf of bread to understand poverty and that made, to me anyway, absolutely no sense at all and added nothing to the conversation.

[paleotn]

6. No.

[MurrayDelph]

12. ...and if they claim that it is part of their "heritage"

they should be required to do all the hunting using rowboats and hand-launched harpoons.


And, even then, only if the bowhead population has also had a 50% increase.

[NickB79]

16. The article says the population has had a 100% increase

So yeah, 50% is already behind us.

[FLPanhandle]

20. I agree

They go out in power boats with high powered rifles. That's not heritage.

Let them go out in kayaks and harpoons. Then maybe and only maybe

[GulfCoast66]

13. Good for them

As long as the harvest is proven sustainable and not in violation of international agreements then why should they not be able to maintain their traditional life? It's not like they are throwing virgins into a volcano or cutting the hearts out of defeated captives, which is what some cultures did and were understandably stopped.

There really are remote communities that can not run down to the supermarket and buy food. Believe it or not, there are still subsistence communities in this country. Would you rather them starve rather than eat the food their people have eaten for thousands of years? Or ship them beef, pork, chicken or whatnot that lived a much more brutal life than those whales? Or tofu. I am sure that a people whose entire culture is based on harvesting(killing and eating) mammals will be willing to forego their lifestyle.

Capitalism almost drove whales into oblivion, not Native Americans trying to hang on to their traditional life.

Have a nice evening.

[FLPanhandle]

21. "why should they not be able to maintain their traditional life? "

Ah the good old days using the traditional fiberglass boat powered by the traditional twin Yamaha outboards, killing with the traditional high powered rifle and exploding harpoon, hauled to shore and butchered using the traditional forklift and power tools.

If they wanted to do it this way, I could see your point about tradition...



But they don't, instead, this is how they do it...



That has nothing to do with tradition, hell, someone could get hurt if they really wanted to keep traditional ways going.

[GulfCoast66]

22. We will just have to agree to disagree

Cause I doubt I will change your mind nor will you change mine

Have a nice weekend

[Xolodno]

14. I'd say that really depends on how much the population has grown.

...and what have they been harvesting consuming in the mean time. Maybe a compromise number can be reached. They live primarily off the sea, meat is consumed raw, etc.

Company I work for purchased another. Turned out they insured in Alaska...no big deal, except, when a warehouse burned down in the middle of winter...it was impossible to put out the flames. Company couldn't get a barge up there for a number of months to rebuild and and replace the contents due to the ice.

Later we put in an underwriting rule, not to write business above the arctic circle.

[NickB79]

17. FYI, the bowhead population is 10,000 and growing fast

There were only 5000 of them 20 years ago.

[FLPanhandle]

18. 10,000 remaining of an entire species

Last edited Sat Sep 16, 2017, 10:23 AM - Edit history (1)

That used to have many times that amount.

Only 10,000 that with global warming could disappear in no time

[cntrfthrs]

27. i see the so-called progressives on this thread are letting their racism show...

these hunting Rights were in exchange for the land the alaska Natives gave up so you can have your usa...the harvest is used for ceremonial purposes...save your ire and outrage for commercial whalers who do far more damage to the whale population then those whose rights were guarenteed by way of Treaties. (which are, for those who have forgotten, the law of the land)...

[Mike__M]

28. DU loves it when those who don't live it

Tell POC how to fix their life, enit?