Press Releases
16 November 2000 - Bowhead Whaling in Canada
The bowhead whale, also called the Greenland right whale, has for centuries been one of the most highly valued animals to Inuit people.
- Throughout the centuries, the nutritious meat, oil, and skin (called muktaaq or muktuk) has provided a high degree of food security in an environment where crops cannot be grown and food scarcity is not unknown.
- From the middle of the 19th century until oil and baleen markets collapsed early in the 20th century, large numbers of bowheads were killed and whale populations severely depleted as a result.
- Despite efforts in the 1960s to resume their own hunt once whale populations increased, it was only in the 1990s that Inuit in the western Canadian Arctic resumed the hunt.
- The bowhead hunt resumed in 1996 and occurs every two years. The population of bowheads around northern Canada is estimated at 700.
- In the Eastern Canadian Arctic, apart from occasional whales hunted or found dead, the taste of the highly-esteemed bowhead mattak remained a memory only among older Inuit until the hunt resumed.
- Bowhead hunting In Canada is regulated by co-management boards in the western and eastern Arctic territories.
- Canada is no longer a member of the International Whaling Commission, so the hunt is subject only to conditions set down in Federal and land claims agreements (the modern-day treaties).
- Bowhead hunting by Inuit is protected by specific acts of the Canadian parliament and Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, as well as national whaling regulations contained in the Fisheries Act.
- The bowhead, weighing up to 40 tonnes and the largest animal in the Arctic, is regarded with awe and reverence by the Inuit.
- The time leading to the hunt is a period of reflection and prayer, focused upon the safety of the whalers and the sacrifice of the whale.
- Ceremonialism, symbolism and celebration associated with bowhead whaling is greater than for other species of whale hunted by the Inuit, such that the return of bowheads to numbers allowing a limited resumption of this important activity aids the revitalisation of Inuit cultural traditions and sense of Inuit identity, especially among younger people.