Barrow Whale Landing

A flag flying means that crew got a whale (each crew has their own distinct flag). In the spring many of the crews use traditional boats with bearded seal skins sewn together with the tendons of caribou.

The whale is ready to be pulled up on the beach to be harvested.

In the fall they use a loader to pull the whale up on the beach. During the spring hunt because of the ice they use block and tackle.

Town shows up when the whale is brought in - for a celebration and to help harvest.

Baleen - part of the whales mouth.

Harvesting the whale into 1 foot wide strips - this will be shared with the entire town.

With all the help it usually takes about three hours to butcher the whale.

A whale weighs (on average) one ton per foot.

Tension is put on the muktuk (the skin and the blubber) while another person continues to cut so that hardly any of it is wasted. The whale meat is under neath the muktuk.
None of the whale is wasted - every bit is either eaten or used in other ways.

An average whale will feed about 20 families per year. Barrow got 28 whales this year - there are 5,000 people that live here. They will also share with people from the villages and other visitors.

About 50 baleen strips (2 ft long) per whale - this is split up between the crew that lands the whale and whoever helps tow the whale in.

This is on a harpoon - shot into the whale - once the harpoon hits this follows and then a few seconds later it explodes with black powder. They try to hit the whale near the heart or brain.

A local artist finishing a piece of art work for me from baleen.

I had never seen baleen this thick - it was explained to me that the older/bigger the whale is the thicker the baleen is.

Thank You to Bobby Nageak & Bob Brouillette!
He is a local who helped me write  all of the captions.

Also thanks to Cliff Gragg for taking all the pictures!

I highly recommend watching a National Geographic production called "Inside the Whale Hunters"