Ecology, Harvest, and Use of Harbor Seals and Sea Lions:
Interview Materials from Alaska Native Hunters
Technical Paper No. 249
Terry L. Haynes and Robert J. Wolfe, Editors
Funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
National Marine Fisheries Service, Subsistence Harvest and Monitor System (No.
50ABNF700050) and Subsistence Seal and Sea Lion Research (NA66FX0476)
Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Division of Subsistence
Juneau, Alaska August 1999
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game conducts all programs and activities free from discrimination on the basis of sex, color, race, religion, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, or disability. For information on alternative formats available for this and other department publications, please contact the department ADA Coordinator at (voice) 907-465-4120, (TDD) 1-800-478-3648 or (FAX) 907-586-6595. Any person who believes s/he has been discriminated against should write to: ADF&G, P.O. Box 25526, Juneau, Alaska 99802-5526; or O.E.O., U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 1 ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ............................................................................................... 11
Akutan................................................................................................................. 11 Atka ..................................................................................................................... 15 False Pass........................................................................................................... 20 King Cove............................................................................................................ 25 Nelson Lagoon.................................................................................................... 30 Nikolski................................................................................................................ 34 St. George........................................................................................................... 37 St. Paul................................................................................................................ 41 Sand Point........................................................................................................... 49 Unalaska ............................................................................................................. 50
KODIAK ISLAND...................................................................................................... 55
Akhiok.................................................................................................................. 55 Karluk .................................................................................................................. 61 Kodiak City .......................................................................................................... 67 Larsen Bay .......................................................................................................... 70 Old Harbor........................................................................................................... 79 Ouzinkie .............................................................................................................. 88 Port Lions ............................................................................................................ 97
NORTH PACIFIC RIM.............................................................................................105
Chenega Bay .....................................................................................................105 Cordova..............................................................................................................130 Kenai ..................................................................................................................134 Nanwalek............................................................................................................136 Port Graham.......................................................................................................139 Seldovia..............................................................................................................145 Seward...............................................................................................................147 Tatitlek................................................................................................................149 Valdez.................................................................................................................156
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Page
SOUTHEAST ALASKA...........................................................................................165
Angoon...............................................................................................................165 Craig...................................................................................................................166 Haines................................................................................................................176 Hoonah...............................................................................................................186 Hydaburg............................................................................................................190 Juneau................................................................................................................197 Kake ...................................................................................................................215 Ketchikan............................................................................................................224 Klawock..............................................................................................................225 Klukwan..............................................................................................................231 Metlakatla...........................................................................................................236 Pelican................................................................................................................239 Petersburg..........................................................................................................244 Saxman..............................................................................................................247 Sitka....................................................................................................................254 Yakutat ...............................................................................................................289
SOUTHWEST ALASKA..........................................................................................295
Aleknagik............................................................................................................295 Chignik Bay ........................................................................................................296 Chignik Lagoon ..................................................................................................299 Chignik Lake.......................................................................................................307 Clarks Point........................................................................................................310 Dillingham...........................................................................................................315 Egegik.................................................................................................................321 Ivanof Bay ..........................................................................................................324 King Salmon.......................................................................................................327 Levelock .............................................................................................................329 Manokotak..........................................................................................................331 Naknek...............................................................................................................338 Perryville.............................................................................................................342 Pilot Point ...........................................................................................................344 Port Heiden ........................................................................................................346 South Naknek.....................................................................................................348 Togiak.................................................................................................................351
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Introduction
This compendium of interview materials from Alaska Native hunters presents information on contemporary patterns of hunting and use of harbor seals and sea lions by Alaska Natives during the late 20th century. The interviews with Alaska Native hunters were conducted during the early-to-mid 1990s. The materials in this volume derive from those interviews. The interview materials offer information on a range of topics pertaining to harbor seals and sea lions, including contemporary hunting methods, uses made of seals and sea lions for food and raw materials, processing of oil and skins, and other cultural practices. The interview materials also offer information on the ecology of harbor seals and sea lions, as observed by Alaska Native experts within their community’s hunting area. Ecological topics include seasonal cycles, population trends, and behavioral habits of harbor seals and sea lions.
Communities Covered
The compendium contains interview material from Alaska Native hunters in 59 communities and five regions:
- Region
- Alaska Native Groups
- Communities
- Southeast Alaska
- Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian
- Angoon, Craig, Haines, Hoonah,
Hydaburg, Juneau, Kake, Ketchikan, Klawock, Klukwan, Metlakatla, Pelican, Petersburg, Saxman, Sitka, Yakutat
North Pacific Rim
Kodiak Island
- Alutiiq, Eyak, Dena’ina
- Chenega Bay, Cordova, Kenai,
Nanwalek, Port Graham, Seldovia, Seward, Tatitlek, Valdez Ahkiok, Karluk, Kodiak City, Larsen Bay, Old Harbor, Ouzinkie, Port Lions Akutan, Atka, False Pass, King Cove, Nelson Lagoon, Nikolski, St. George, St. Paul, Sand Point, Unalaska
Alutiiq
- Aleut
- Aleutian Islands
- Southwest Alaska
- Alutiiq, Yup’ik
- Aleknagik, Chignik Bay, Chignik
Lagoon, Chignik Lake, Clark’s Point, Dillingham, Egegik, Ivanof Bay, King Salmon, Levelock, Manokotak, Naknek, Perryville, Pilot Point, Port Heiden, South Naknek, Togiak
This set of communities represents most of the Alaska Native groups that hunt harbor seals and/or sea lions in Alaska.
The Project
The interviews on harbor seals and sea lions were conducted as part of a cooperative project between marine mammal hunters and the Division of Subsistence, Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The tribal governments of communities in which interviews were conducted approved the project. The project received formal technical oversight from two associations representing marine mammal hunter interests -- the Alaska Native Harbor Seal Commission and the Indigenous People’s Council for Marine
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Mammals. Funding for the project came from the National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Department of Commerce.
The project called for documenting the annual harvests of harbor seals and sea lions by Alaska Natives. To do this, hunters in more than 60 coastal communities provided information on their harvests of seals and sea lions each year between 1992 and 1998 (the date of this current publication). Findings from the annual hunter surveys are presented in several reports (see Robert J. Wolfe and Craig Mishler, The Subsistence
Harvest of Harbor Seal and Sea Lion by Alaska Natives, Technical Paper Nos. 229, 233,
236, 238, 241, and 246, Division of Subsistence, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Juneau).
The Interviews with Hunters
As part of this project, interviews were conducted with marine mammal experts in each participating community. The project attempted to interview at least two experts in each community. The purpose of the interviews was to record additional information on contemporary patterns of hunting and use of harbor seals and sea lions. A secondary purpose was to record information on the ecology of harbor seals and sea lions. Summaries of this information are included in the reports of the annual subsistence harvests, listed above.
Interviews with marine mammal experts were semi-structured. The local expert was asked relatively open-ended questions such as, “how are seals hunted in your community?” Specific topics ranged widely within the general content area across respondents. Responses of local experts to questions were recorded by tape and in notes. Notes and tapes were edited into a written text of short, key-worded paragraphs. The texts were intended to be paraphrased narratives, rather than close transcripts, in order to efficiently present subject content (as opposed to closely preserving narrative style). The texts were compiled into a computer-searchable electronic database using the askSam computer software program (available in CD-ROM as Whiskers!, Division of Subsistence, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Juneau, 1998).
This current written compendium of interview materials arose because of a desire to make the collection of materials available as a hard copy report. Not all persons have access to computers to use the computer-searchable database. A hard copy report makes the materials available to a wider audience. Further, it seemed advisable to preserve the materials in report form to help ensure their continued availability in the longer term.
Organization of Materials and Keywords
In this volume, the entries are organized first by region, then in alphabetical order by the community of the respondent, and then by respondent code. The longest interviews in a particular community are presented first. Shorter notes from other respondents or interviewer observations are presented later.
Several keywords precede each field note entry. Keywords describe the primary content of each field note entry. Resource keywords are presented first, since most entries discuss a marine mammal, fish, or wildlife species. Ecological and Sociocultural keywords appear next and describe the basic content of the field note entry. The Community of residence of the key respondent is the final keyword for each entry. A list of keywords is as follows:
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RESOURCE KEYWORDS
SOCIOCULTURAL KEYWORDS
ECOLOGICAL KEYWORDS
Bear Bearded Seal Beluga
Aleut Terms Alutiiq Terms Beliefs
Abnormalities Behavior Biology
Birds Dolphin Elephant Seal Fish Fur Seal Gray Whale Hair Seal Harbor Seal Herring
Ceremonies Commercial Fishing Commercial Hunting / Bounty Cooking Customary Rules Division of Labor Economy
Disease Ecology EVOS (Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill) Habitat/Haulouts Molting Oil Spill Pollution Population Levels Prey
Fat / Oil Flippers
Humpback Whale Killer Whale Marine Mammals Parka Squirrel Porpoise
Folklore Games Harvest Levels History Hunters
Pups Rookeries Taxonomy Weather
Ribbon Seal Ringed Seal Sea Elephant Sea Lion Sea Otter Seal
Hunting Conditions Hunting Methods Internal Organs Management Meal Preparation Meat
Shellfish Spotted Seal Walrus
Non-food Products Nutrition / Health Processing / Preservation Regulations Retrieval Methods Salvage
Whale
Seasonality Selectivity Sharing Skins Struck and Lost Taste / Preference Tlingit Terms Trade Use Areas Whiskers Yup’ik Terms
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COMMUNITY KEYWORDS ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
Akutan Atka
KODIAK ISLAND
Akhiok Karluk
NORTH PACIFIC RIM
Chenega Bay Cordova
False Pass King Cove Nelson Lagoon Nikolski
Kodiak City Larsen Bay Old Harbor Ouzinkie
Kenai Nanwalek Port Graham Seldovia
St. George St. Paul
- Port Lions
- Seward
Tatitlek
Sand Point Unalaska
Valdez
SOUTHEAST ALASKA
Angoon
SOUTHWEST ALASKA
Aleknagik
Craig Haines Hoonah Hydaburg Juneau Kake
Chignik Bay Chignik Lagoon Chignik Lake Clarks Point Dillingham Egegik
Ketchikan Klawock Klukwan
Ivanof Bay King Salmon Levelock
- Metlakatla
- Manokotak
- Pelican
- Naknek
Petersburg Petersburg Saxman
Perryville Pilot Point Port Heiden South Naknek Togiak
Uncertainties and Potential Errors in Materials
By and large, the materials appear as the original researcher prepared them. They have not undergone secondary review, except for some editing for spelling and formatting. Inevitably, this process will preserve any errors that may have crept into the materials during the interview and transcription process, including such things as ungrammatical sentences and misspelled place names. Occasionally, the editors of this volume have inserted a bracketed question mark [?] when the meaning of a sentence is obviously unclear. Readers should use the materials mindful that uncertainties and errors may exist in portions of the texts. The materials are interview texts, not finished, reviewed technical reports.
Source Names
The names of interviewed experts were not included in the compendium to preserve the privacy of individual hunters. Anonymity of respondents was assured as part of the project. Instead, a code is used indicating the community, key respondent identifier, and date of interview.
A number of different researchers conducted interviews and edited materials, including the following:
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KEY RESPONDENT INTERVIEWERS DATES OF
- COMMUNITY
- INTERVIEWS
- INTERVIEWER(S)
Aleutian Islands:
- Akutan
- November 1993
April 1993 May 1993 February 1993 November 1993 January 1995
Lisa Scarbrough, Craig Mishler Lisa Scarbrough, Lisa Tomrdle Ka’aihue Lisa Scarbrough, Lisa Tomrdle Ka’aihue Lisa Scarbrough, Craig Mishler Lisa Scarbrough
Atka
Ronald Stanek, Lisa Scarbrough, Moses Dirks
September 1995 February 1993 May 1995 December 1992 January 1993 February 1993 April 1993 November 1993 January 1993 November 1993 February 1995 January 1993 February 1993 November 1993 December 1992 February 1993 September 1995 January 1995
Vicki Vanek Rachel Mason Vicki Vanek
False Pass
- King Cove
- Vicky Vanek, Craig Mishler
Vicky Vanek, Rachel Mason Rachel Mason Lisa Scarbrough, Lisa Tomrdle Ka’aihue Lisa Scarbrough Lisa Scarbrough, Craig Mishler Lisa Scarbrough Craig Mishler Lisa Scarbrough, Craig Mishler Lisa Scarbrough, Craig Mishler Lisa Scarbrough Vicky Vanek, Craig Mishler Lisa Scarbrough, Craig Mishler Vicki Vanek
Nelson Lagoon Nikolski
St. George
St. Paul Sand Point Unalaska
Lisa Scarbrough, Vicky Vanek, Ronald Stanek, Bill Simeone
Kodiak Island:
- Ahkiok
- October 1990
November 1992 March 1993 December 1992 February 1993 October 1992 December 1992 April 1991
Craig Mishler Craig Mishler Craig Mishler Staff Rachel Mason Staff
Karluk Kodiak City
Staff Staff
October 1993 April 1991 October 1993
Staff Craig Mishler Staff
Larsen Bay
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DATES OF
- COMMUNITY
- INTERVIEWS
- INTERVIEWER(S)
Kodiak Island (cont’d)
- Old Harbor
- May 1990
- Craig Mishler
- April 1993
- Craig Mishler
February 1997 October 1992 November 1992 July 1996
Craig Mishler Craig Mishler Craig Mishler Craig Mishler
Ouzinkie
- Port Lions
- October 1992
November 1992 March 1993
Craig Mishler, Rachel Mason Craig Mishler Craig Mishler
- December 1993
- Craig Mishler
North Pacific Rim:
- Chenega Bay
- April 1990
- Pippa Coiley
December 1991 May 1993
Staff Jody Seitz
June 1993 October 1993 November 1993 March 1994 April 1994
Staff Staff Staff Staff Staff
- May 1994
- Staff
October 1994 January 1993 March 1994 March 1993 April 1993 May 1993 April 1993 May 1993 June 1993 April 1993
Staff
- Cordova
- Jody Seitz, Lisa Tomrdle Ka'aihue
Jody Seitz
Kenai Nanwalek
Ronald Stanek Ronald Stanek Ronald Stanek Ronald Stanek Ronald Stanek Ronald Stanek Craig Mishler, Jody Seitz Jody Seitz
Port Graham Seldovia
Seward Tatitlek Valdez
June 1993
- May 1993
- Staff
Southeast Alaska:
- Angoon
- March 1993
November 1995 March 1993 February 1993 June 1993
Robert Schroeder Staff Anne-Marie Victor Martha Betts
Craig Haines
Martha Betts
- Hoonah
- March 1993
April 1993
Robert Schroeder Robert Schroeder