Japan reverses whaling stance

Japan says it will reverse its opposition to subsistence bowhead whaling.

In May at the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting in Japan, Japan voted against quotas for the bowhead whale hunt in Alaska and Chukotka.

The news from Japan was well-received in Barrow, Alaska, where a nalukataq, or whale festival, was getting under way. This traditional celebration is thrown jointly by three to five whaling captains after one lands a bowhead.

“This is going to be a special nalukataq,” Edward Itta, vice-chairman of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, told the Anchorage Daily News.

It has been a poor spring whaling season, Itta said, and the nalukataq would be Barrow’s first of 2002.

“Quite a bit of damage has been done,” Itta said. “My fellow whalers, we still feel the hurt. I never want to be put in the position again where we are used as pawns. This is something we do not play around with. This is a key element to the survival of our people.”