NOAA Fisheries News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
April 25, 2008
Sheela McLean, Public Affairs
(907) 586-7032
NOAA Fisheries Issues Record of Decision and Final Rule on Bowhead Whale Hunt
NOAA Fisheries Service has issued a Record of Decision and published a final rule authorizing the 2008 Alaska Bowhead whale subsistence hunt.
“This decision continues the historic use of bowhead whales for Alaska Natives’ subsistence and cultural traditions,” said Robert D. Mecum, Acting Regional Administrator for the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries Service.
Under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, 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.
NOAA Fisheries Service issues the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission the Alaskan share of this quota by regulation each year.
NOAA Fisheries has approved the 2008 strike quota of 67 whales. This level of mortality is considered negligible for the bowhead population in light of current abundance and growth trends. In 2007 Alaska natives consumed 42 whales for subsistence.
On February 4, 2008, NOAA Fisheries released 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.
The public comment period on that final Environmental Impact Statement ended on March 3, 2008. Two comment letters were received and both supported the bowhead whale hunt.
For more information on the proposed action, or to download a copy of the final EIS, visit http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/protectedresources/whales/bowhead/.For CD copies of the final document, contact Steven K. Davis, NOAA Fisheries Service, 222 West 7th Ave., #517, Anchorage, AK 99513. Written comments can be submitted to the same address or by email to bowhead-FEIS@noaa.gov. When submitting email comments, use Final Bowhead Whale EIS in the subject line.
NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service) is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries in Alaska, please visit our websites at: alaskafisheries.noaa.gov or at: www.afsc.noaa.gov.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.