of Bowhead, Baleen and Blubber

Inuit in the Canadian Eastern Arctic have been hunting bowhead for subsistence since the Thule Culture (1,000 to 1,600 AD). The Thule people had a strong maritime culture that included mastery of large boats (umiak) and the use of harpoons with sealskin floats that could be used to hunt Narwahl, Beluga and even bowhead. Qallunaat engaged in commercial whaling in the Eastern Arctic from 1848 to 1911, this had a massive impact on the whale population which had previously been unaffected by centuries of subsistence hunting.  The bowhead is one of the largest baleen whales, second in weight only to the blue whale. Its blubber can be as thick as two feet and it boasts the largest mouth of any animal with up to 660 baleen plates which can be as long as 4 metres.  A single bowhead whale could yield up to 100 barrels of oil and 1500 pounds of baleen (also known as whalebone, strips of which were used as stays in corsets).

The Federal ban on bowhead hunting was enacted in 1979, however in the early 1920's along with the arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company in the area, there was a perception that the government had banned Inuit from hunting bowhead. In 1991 the Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO) collaborated with Inuit organizations to develop an international bowhead conservation strategy. The first sanctioned post land claim hunt took place in 1996, and was authorized with a DFO license. Article 5.5.2 of the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims agreement mandated that an Inuit bowhead knowledge study be undertaken, the final report was published in March 2000 and includes suggestions for an appropriate rate of harvesting which was initially set at one whale every two years. The DFO's 2009. selective hunting report makes the recommendation that hunts target juvenile male bowheads in order to minimize the impact on the population's recovery. Between 1996 and 2008 a total of eight bowhead whales were harvested in Nunavut. In May 2009 the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board increased the quota to three whales per year, one in each of the Territory's three regions. In August 2009 a bowhead was harvested in the Kivalik region after a 23 day hunt. The communities of Repulse Bay and Pond Inlet were also successful in harvesting whales in 2010.

On Monday August 15, 2011 we watched a group of hunters making preparations to set out on Iqaluit's first bowhead whale hunt in living memory. By 9pm the next day word was spreading that the hunters had caught a whale. The excitement in the City grew as details trickled in and preparations began for a community feast to celebrate the historic catch. High tide on Wednesday morning saw a fleet of community members head out to help butcher the behemouth and 24 hours later the first slabs of maqtaaq appeared on the breakwater, followed by meat and then the return of the hunters on the evening high tide. (The tidal range here is as much as 11m so boats cannot access the breakwaters at all times).