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Napaskiak And Surrounding Villages Working To Recover Whale Killed In Kuskokwim River

Courtesy of Paul Smith II from Facebook

Napaskiak and surrounding villages are working to salvage a whale killed yesterday in the Kuskokwim River. Fishermen are currently out on the water during this evening’s low tide, trying to bring the carcass to shore.

The legal implications of this incident are unclear at this point, but it is clear that whales are protected species under federal law and international treaty.

Alaska Natives can hunt beluga whales and other marine mammals protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Only 11 Arctic Alaska Native communities are authorized under international treaty to hunt bowhead whales. Each community is allotted a strike quota, and whaling captains are registered. None of those communities are in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

The Napaskiak Tribal Council met this morning to discuss the situation and decided to donate $500 of gas to fishermen to help recover the animal, according to Napaskiak Tribal Administrator Sharon Williams.

She says that Search and Rescue members spent the day welding large hooks to use during the recovery. Williams reports that fishermen located the whale 30 feet below the river’s surface where it was killed last night.

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is currently investigating the incident. NOAA Spokeswoman Julie Speegle says that they are reviewing photos and videos of the event and interviewing witnesses via telephone. Speegle says that NOAA does not currently have plans to travel to the area.

Whales do not usually swim this far, about 60 miles, up the Kuskokwim. Speegle says, “Sometimes large whales can survive for weeks upriver, and their occasional wanderings upriver have puzzled scientists for some years.”

The whale’s arrival surprised Kuskokwim residents when it was spotted near Napaskiak on Thursday afternoon. Locals surrounded the whale with 30 to 40 boats and struggled to kill it using guns, seal harpoons, and whatever they had on hand. It took them around 90 minutes to kill the whale.

Fishermen worked to salvage the whale’s meat and pull it to shore, but its carcass was too heavy and sank. No one knows what kind of whale it was, but several locals say that it was larger than a beluga, maybe 35 feet long, and that its body was grey and barnacled.

News of the event prompted a broad spectrum of reaction. Some of it surfaced during KYUK’s weekly call-in show, Talk Line, on Friday morning.

“I’m kinda sick to my stomach," said a caller named Andy, who grew up in Bethel and called from Anchorage. “Not every animal that comes near a village or comes up the Kuskokwim River belongs to the Kuskokwim River."

Others disagreed.

“Up here on the Kuskokwim," said a man who identified himself as Evon, "it’s a special gift of food. F-O-O-D. Subsistence.”

Many were worried about negative national media attention.

“If they don’t retrieve it, it’s just news that we’re malicious slaughterers,” said a caller named Susan.

An anonymous email said, “I hope in the future we can be more respectful.”

Some callers said that they’d never seen a whale of this kind this far up the river in their lifetime. Everyone agreed that the whale needed to be salvaged.

“We don’t want waste,” said caller Ruth Evon. “We don’t waste anything here.”

Correction: A previous version incorrectly stated the number of miles the whale swam upriver. The correct length is about 60 miles.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.