Alaskan city keeps whale hunting tradition alive
Molly Pederson, right, and her daughter Laura Patkotak take a selfie as a bowhead whale, caught by Alaska Native subsistence hunters from their family is brought ashore in Barrow, Alaska.- Fredrick Brower helps to cut up the whale with Inupiat subsistence hunters. The catch maintains a tradition that has stretched back thousands of years.
- A 'cutter' takes a break and drinks a soup of boiled bowhead whale meat and blubber while butchering a whale in a field near Barrow, Alaska. As workers continue with the cutting and hooking of the whale blubber, others prepare food to warm the crews.
- The ice turns red with blood from the whale as men finish with the butchering process. After a whale is divided and shared, blood and some remains are taken further afield.
- Giant slabs of skin and blubber are carved off as cutters divide sections of the bowhead whale which was caught by a whaling captain in a tiny boat in the Chukchi Sea.
- The skin and blubber, known as muktuk, is prized by the Inupiat, and often eaten frozen. The community says the catch helps them feed their families in the town where produce such as watermelons that are flown in cost as much as $20 each at the
- Family members and friends of the Anagi whaling crew celebrate after the whale was brought ashore near Barrow, Alaska. The celebration begins earlier in the town when a whaling captain radios to shore, 'hey, hey, hey!,' a sign to all of a captured
- A boy holds on to the baleen of the whale before butchering work begins. It is part of celebrations that took place on the frozen fields after the mammal was brought ashore.
- Community members bow their heads for a prayer. Both revered and hunted by the Inupiat, the bowhead whale serves a symbol of tradition, as well as a staple of food.
- Giving thanks: Community members bow their heads for a prayer. Both revered and hunted by the Inupiat, the bowhead whale serves a symbol of tradition, as well as a staple of food.
Molly Pederson, right, and her daughter Laura Patkotak take a selfie as a bowhead whale, caught by Alaska Native subsistence hunters from their family is brought ashore in Barrow, Alaska.
Alaskan city keeps whale hunting tradition alive
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