Robert D. Mecum, Acting Regional Administrator for the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries Service, informed that this decision continues the historic use of bowhead whales for Alaska Natives’ subsistence and cultural traditions. The International Whaling Commission approved an overall five-year subsistence catch limit 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. This has been done under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
NOAA Fisheries has approved the 2008 strike quota of 67 whales. On February 4, 2008, NOAA Fisheries has issued a final Environmental Impact Statement that analyzed subsistence harvests of the Western Arctic stock of bowhead whales for the years 2008 through 2012 under the Whaling Convention Act, and under a cooperative agreement with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service) is dedicated to protecting and preserving America’s living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat. the public comment on the above issue has been submitted last month and soon the action would be taken to preserve the hunting of bowhead whales in Alaska.
