TC/40/AS2 QUANTIFICATION OF SUBSISTENCE AND CULTURAL NEED FOR BOWHEAD WHALES BY ALASKA ESKIMOS Stephen R. Braund Sam W. Stoker John A. Kruse May 1988 Stephen R. Braund & Associates P.O. Box 1480 Anchorage, Alaska 99510 907-276-8222 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ... i LIST OF TABLES. iii LIST OF FIGURES.. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.... iii INTRODUCTION.. 1 Historical Context 3 Interim Report on Aboriginal/Subsistence Whaling of the Bowhead Whale by Alaskan Eskimos . 4 Subsistence Study of Alaska Eskimo Whaling Villages . 4 Report on Nutritional, Subsistence, and Cultural Needs Relating to the Catch of Bowhead Whales hy Alaska Natives 6 Comments on the U.S. Government's 1983 Position Paper 8 Organization of Report . 9 DAT A COLLECTION METHODS ..... 11 Data on Shore-Based Whaling . 11 Repository, Library, and Archival Sources 12 Field Data Collection 12 Wainwright 18 Wales .. 19 Gambell .. 19 Savoonga 20 Summary..... 20 The Eskimo Population Model 20 Data Sources for the Model 21 Model Structure . 21 Wildlife Resource Data 27 Data Sources for the Resource Assessment 28 Conclusion . 29 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ... 30 Whale Harvest Data . 30 Presentation of Whale Harvest Data in Appendix 1 30 Resolution of Whale Harvest Data Conflicts 32 Consolidation of Historic Sites 34 Kivalina ..... 36 Point Hope 38 Wainwright 38 Barrow .. 39 Selection of the Appropriate Base Period 40 Variability in Resource Populations 41 Economic Variability Over Time 43 Establishing the Beginning of the Base Period 44 Establishing the End of the Base Period 47 The Base Period: 1910 Through 1969 48 Estimation of Cultural and Subsistence Need Based on the Relationship Between Bow head Whales Landed and Eskimo Population . 49 Future Population Trends 57 Struck and Lost 59 Conclusion . 61 TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) REFERENCES CITED . 62 APPENDIX 1: Data on Shore-Based Bowhead Whaling at Sites in Alaska (including bibliographies) by Stephen R. Braund, Willman M. Marquette, and John R. Bockstoce APPENDIX 2: Whale Harvest and Eskimo Population Data for Alaska Eskimo Whaling Communities, 1910-1969 by Stephen R. Braund and John A. Kruse ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Repositories, Libraries, and Archives Searched for Information on Alaska Shore-Based Whaling . 13 Table 2: Information Sources for the Eskimo Population Model 22 Table 3: List of Alaska Sites for Shore-Based Bowhead Whaling Data 35 Table 4: List of Consolidated Alaska Sites for Subsistence Whaling 37 Table 5: Example from Appendix 2, Whale Harvest and Eskimo Population Data for Barrow, Alaska, 1910-1969 . 54 Table 6: Alaska Eskimo Whaling Villages' Subsistence and Cultural Need For Landed Bowhead Whales, 1988 . 56 Table 7: Alaska Eskimo Whaling Villages' Eskimo Population Estimates 1983-1988 . 58 Table 8: Percent of Bowheads Landed Out of Total Struck 60 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Alaska Eskimo Bowhead Whaling Locations 2 Figure 2: Alaska Eskimo Population Living in Whaling Villages, 1900-2020 26 Figure 3: Excerpt From Appendix 1 - Data on Shore-Based Whaling Sites In Alaska . 31 Figure 4: Number of Bowhead Landed by Year by Alaska Eskimo, 1900-1987 45 Figure 5: Number of Bowhead Landed by the Barrow, Alaska Eskimo, 1910-1969 . 51 Figure 6: Barrow, Alaska Eskimo Population, 1910-1969 52 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In addition to individuals listed on the title page, the following people assisted in the research and preparation of this report: Lisa Moorehead, David C. Burnham, Monica Glen, Robert B. Glen and Anne C. Sudkamp. iii INTRODUCTION The purpose of this report is to determine the level of present cultural and subsistence need for bowhead whales by Alaska Eskimos based on historic bowhead harvest levels and Eskimo populations in nine Alaska whaling villages. The report also contains an estimate of future need based on a projection of the Alaska Eskimo population in these communities to the year 2020. Communities included are Gambell, Savoonga, Wales, Kivalina, Point Hope, Wainwright, Barrow, Nuiqsut, and Kaktovik (Figure 1). The methodology used in this report is that of historic per capita harvests. This methodology was submitted to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by the U.S. in 1983 and accepted by the IWC in 1986. The present report contains a calculation of cultural and subsistence need using an expanded data base designed to address the questions raised by IWC member nations preceding and during the 1986 meetings. As used in this paper, cultural and subsistence need does not include nutritional need. Thus, this analysis does not address the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates that Eskimos need to maintain their physical health. Rather, the need addressed here refers to the traditional need by Alaska Eskimos to maintain a healthy and viable culture. One of the primary ways contemporary Eskimos maintain their cultural identity is through the local harvest and consumption of subsistence foods and associated social activities. In the Alaska whaling communities, the most important traditional activity is bowhead whaling, including training, preparation for the hunt, hunting, harvesting, distri bu ti on and sharing of meat and muktuk, and associated ceremonies (see Alaska Consultants, Inc. and Stephen Braund & Associates 1984, International Whaling Commission 1979, Worl 1978, 1979, Lowenstein 1981). In order to maintain the cultural value of this activity, the Eskimos must continue to have the opportunity to hunt and harvest bowhead whales. Using historic per capita harvests by village as a measure, the authors of this report determine how many bowhead whales these Alaska Eskimo villages require in order to maintain their cultural identity. Because a determination of need based on cultural and subsistence factors is independent of the biological status of the species, the number of whales potentially available is not considered in this analysis. - 1 - Figure I: LEGEND 0 ALASKA ESKIMO VILLAGE Alaska Eskimo Bowhead @ TRADITIONAL WHALING SITE * HISTORIC SEffiEMENT SCALE IN MILES Whaling Locatipns SfEPHEN R. BRAUND & ASSOC 1988 BEAUFORT SEA BarrON CHUKCHI SEA "" ~ S K A / KING ISLAND :f> Gambell ~ga ~NT~ BERING SEA LAWRENCE ISLAND HISTORICAL CONTEXT Since its formation in 1947, the IWC has regulated the commercial hunting of whales. However, until 1977, an exemption for subsistence hunting enabled the Alaska Eskimos to continue their subsistence harvest of the western Arctic bowhead stock free of IWC regulation. In recent years, subsistence hunting has been regulated by the IWC to permit the Alaska Eskimos to continue their harvest during the IWC's moratorium on commercial whaling. The Alaska Eskimos have harvested bowhead whales for over 2,000 years as the large mammals migrate through nearshore leads that develop in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas each spring. Yankee whalers began to exploit this bowhead population commercially beginning in 1848. Analysis of historic commercial whaling records indicates that over 19,000 bowheads were killed from 1848 to 1915 in response to worldwide demands for whale oil and baleen (Bockstoce 1978). The establishment of the first shore-based whaling stations in 1885 marked the Eskimos' en try into the commercial whaling industry and their introduction to Yankee whaling technology. Following the collapse of the industry in 1909, Eskimo whalers continued their subsistence whaling, adopting the Yankee shoulder and darting guns for their subsistence hunts. Due to the excessive commercial harvests of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the IWC in the mid-l 970s determined that all bowhead stocks, including the western Arctic population upon which the Alaska Eskimos depend, should be considered seriously depleted (Tillman 1980). Hence, the IWC assumed jurisdiction over the Alaska Eskimos' subsistence bowhead whale hunting. Beginning in 1972, the IWC requested that the United States provide data regarding the status of the western Arctic bowhead population and the Alaska Eskimo hunt of this whale. As a result, the U.S., through the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) of the Department of Commerce, began to gather biological information on the bow head and to monitor the Alaska Eskimo subsistence hunt in 1973. The lack of data on the size and health of the bowhead population, combined with reported increases in the number of bowheads landed and whales struck but lost, as well as reported increases in the number of whaling crews in three major whaling communities during the early to mid-1970s (Tillman 1980) led to increasing concern among conservation groups - 3 - and some IWC members over the effect of the Alaska Eskimo unregulated subsistence hunt on the endangered bowhead population. At that time, bowhead population estimates were so low that, in June 1977, the IWC banned the harvest of bowhead whales for subsistence. At a special meeting in December 1977, the IWC's Scientific Committee determined that, based on the biological data available, the subsistence hunt of bow heads should not be allowed. However, cultural and subsistence dependence on the bowhead by the Alaska Eskimos prompted the IWC to remove the ban and to implement a 1978 quota of 12 whales landed or 18 struck, whichever occurred first. In addition, the IWC asked the U.S. for further research on the biology of the bowhead as well as on the cultural and subsistence needs of the Alaska Eskimos to hunt this species. Interim Report on Aboriginal/Subsistence Whaling of the Bowhead Whale by Alaskan Eskimos In 1980, at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the IWC, the U.S. submitted a report compiled by the U.S. Department of Interior (USDOI) entitled Interim Report on Aboriginal/Subsistence Whaling of the Bowhead Whale by Alaskan Eskimos (USDOI 1980). In this report, the US DOI addressed specific issues raised by the IWC in 1979 at its 31st Annual Meeting concerning the future of the bowhead whale and the Eskimo culture. Based on the information then available, the report examined the cultural and nutritional importance of the bowhead to the Eskimos and assessed historic bowhead harvests by community.