((PKG)) ALASKA WHALING
((Banner: Whaling))
((Reporter: Natasha Mozgovaya))
((Camera: Aleksandr Bergan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska))
((Banner: International law allows for whaling by Aboriginal groups))
((NATS))
((CRAWFORD PATKOTAK, WHALING CAPTAIN))
All year round, we’re preparing for the whale hunt, and it's about feeding people, about feeding the community and making sure nobody goes hungry and encouraging every able-bodied person to participate in the hunt, to keep your culture alive, to keep your traditions alive.
((NATS))
((MICHAEL DONOVAN, WHALING CAPTAIN))
So, that’s why we take our kids out at a young age, you know. It's something you don't learn overnight, you just learn over the years. So, I feel very confident that, Lord willing, it will go on for another thousand years.
((NATS))
((CRAWFORD PATKOTAK, WHALING CAPTAIN))
And when a whale is caught, it’s a great responsibility on the captain and his wife to make sure that the whale is distributed correctly. All the crews that participate in harvesting and butchering the whale have a share that they get. All the crews, every person that comes down gets a share, and then there’s the areas of the whale that are set aside for the festivities that we’re having right now.
((NATS))
((Woman))
Getting our Eskimo food that we survive on and hot soup on a cold day.
((Man))
Nagalak soup, or the geese soup, or the Eider duck soup, I could say. I love eating that. Especially the Mikigaq, the fermented whale. I can't wait until they serve that.
((Man))
Muktuk, it's always muktuk.
((Man))
The homebrew he’s talking about can be served at 3 o'clock. Fermented whale.
((NATS))
((MICHAEL DONOVAN, WHALING CAPTAIN))
It's really dangerous. I mean, you’re in a 20 foot boat, paddling up to a whale that is 30 to 60 feet big. So, there’s a lot of, you know, little things that could go wrong and it's just dangerous all the way around. Sleeping on the sea ice, you know, I mean there is a possibility of floating out with the ice. The current changes, the wind changes, you get a crack, it could happen so fast.
((NATS))
((CRAWFORD PATKOTAK, WHALING CAPTAIN))
There’s close to 20 thousand bowhead whales nowadays. So, the stock is healthy. We take less than 0.2 percent of the total population through our harvest. And this is something that has been going on with our people since time immemorial. And it’s something that has kept our community strong and working together.
((NATS))
