Whale hunters attacked for childrens’ deaths

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

An anti-whaling group says Gambell whalers killed two village 11-year-olds by letting them participate in a whaling hunt last month.

Cousins Yolanda and Leonard Nowpakahok were among four people dead or missing after their boat capsized on April 27.

“The people of St. Lawrence Island may have the right under law to slaughter the endangered bowhead whale, but they should not be allowed to expose minors to the risks involved in killing whales,” Paul Watson, president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said in a written statement issued last week.

“We are appalled and outraged,” said village tribe vice-president Branson Tungiyan in a letter demanding an apology. “We did not kill those two children.”

The Yupik village of 650, Tungiyan said, is still reeling from the accident that claimed not only two children, but also village mayor and whaling captain Jason Nowpakahok and a crewman.

After the accident, the Sea Shepherd society, which was formed in 1977 to protect marine mammals, called on the Coast Guard to investigate the deaths and take steps to prevent others.

The release’s headline drew Gambell residents’ wrath: “Alaskan Whalers Kill Two Children and an Endangered Bowhead Whale.”

In his letter to Watson, Tungiyan explained that St. Lawrence Islanders have “since time immemorial… included our children in our hunting practices, whether it be on land, or in the Bering Sea or for whaling. This is an age-old practice that has been handed down from generation to generation – something your society does not practice.”