Bowhead Whale Could Slow US Plan for OffShore Oil Drilling
Posted by jennifer, October 6th, 2008 - under News.
Tags: Energy, Whales
Tomorrow the residents of Barrow, Alaska, a town on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, will vote for a new mayor. According to at least one report whoever wins will potentially impact the ability of the US to fast track its plans for energy independence through offshore oil drilling.
While both the current mayor, Edward Itta, and his rival and former Mayor, George Ahmaogak, are pro-development and have supported the oil industry, the incumbent Itta is against off-shore drilling.
Mayor Itta claims to be concerned that off-shore drilling will potentially scare away the bowhead whales which are still considered “culturally and nutritionally” important to his community of predominately Alaska Natives.
There is also the issue of whether offshore drilling, as opposed to onshore drilling, will cut his municipality out of a share in the oil revenue. Indeed could the whales be a convenient excuse for keeping oil exploration and revenue in the municipality?
In nearby Canada, hunting of bowhead whales is also still considered culturally important.
In August, The Bowhead Whale Music Festival in Nunavik coincided with the signing of an authorization from Canada’s federal department of fisheries and oceans to kill a single whale.
Bowhead Whale Harvest, Northern Quebec, August 2008, Photo via 'IceClass'
Good photo, Iceclass. Is that a standard sharp point on the harpoon or a power head?
I was wondering the same, Ian, but judging by the colour of the water and the whale’s activity it’s probably not a power head.
Only a guess though.
A bit like our aboriginals hunting dugong. [With 200 hp outboards etc.]
Mott, I think it’s a straight toggle-head but I wasn’t there and I didn’t take the pic so can’t be totally sure.
Spangled Drongo would you prefer “our” aboriginals to use a bigger motor or only to fit your preconceived material notions of what aboriginal food production practices should use in the way of tools?
You want the to use a bigger motor, smaller.
At a bowhead hunt a few years ago in the community of Pangnirtung, the hunters were mandated by the Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans to use an old brass harpoon gun with an explosive charge that had a good possibility of blowing up in their faces rather than allowing them to hunt as they saw fit. (They are, after all, the experts here on hunting bowheads).
IceClass,
If you want to allow fulltime open season on wildlife by indigenies, let them use their indigenous methods only.
If that’s preconceived, I’m guilty.
I am not comfortable with any notion that excludes indigenous folk from adopting any technology that serves their purposes. If it is OK for us then it is OK for them. So, Spangled one, the hunting activity is already regulated by quota so the issue of what technology is used becomes redundant.
Ian,
If there is a well controlled quota then,naturally, the quicker and cleaner the kill the better, however in situations where there is no supervision, which I suspect occurs a lot, modern technology leads to wholesale slaughter.
In indigenous communities where food is not a problem, the request for “traditional hunting culture” is supposed to be the justification for certain [otherwise protected] wildlife to be killed. Foodsource is usually secondary.
Surely “traditional hunting culture” should be what it says; the culture of hunting traditionally.
Traditional hunting is not “murdering god’s creatures” by any means possible.
I have a piece on Bowheads on my blog:
http://annimal.bloggsida.se/diverse/bowhead-whale
Ann,
“The Greenland Whale”, a good sea shanty.
On the 23rd of March, me boys, we hoisted our topsail,
Cryin’ heaven above protect us with a sweet and pleasant gale.
We never wuz downhearted nor let our courage fail,
As we strode on the deck, me boys, lookin’ out for the Greenland whale,
Lookin’ out for the Greenland whale.
Plus many more verses with the last ending….
We’ll make them lofty alehouses in London town to roar,
And when our money is all gone, to Greenland go for more, brave boys,
To Greenland go for more.
Thanks S.D for the poem.
Bowheads are called also the Arctic Right Whale or the Greenland Right Whale.
In Icelandic : Graenlandshvalur