NOAA Fisheries seeks public input on arctic bowhead whale subsistence harvest catch limits

Press Release
June 15, 2012

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has released a draft Environmental Impact Statement to support the setting of annual catch limits for bowhead whale subsistence harvest by Alaska Natives for 2013 through 2017/2018.

Publication of the Notice of Availability in the Federal Register opens a 60-day public comment period.

For over 2,000 years, Eskimos have hunted bowhead whales as they migrate along the coastline of Alaska in the spring and fall. Native subsistence hunters from 11 northern Alaskan communities take less than one-percent of the stock of bowhead whales per year.

Under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) approves overall five-year or six-year subsistence catch limits for the Western Arctic stock of bowhead whales based upon the needs of Native hunters in Alaskan villages and in Russian villages along the Chukotka Peninsula.

The IWC will conduct its next meeting on July 2-6, 2012 in Panama City, Panama, and based on the management advice of the IWC Scientific Committee, is likely to adopt a catch limit at the same annual levels as the previous five-year period...

Source: NOAA Fisheries seeks public input on arctic bowhead whale subsistence harvest catch limits
Author: NOAA

Link: Comments sought for Alaska Native whaling quotas
Link: The International Whaling Commission conserves and manages bowhead whale populations worldwide under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.


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