audio

Bowhead Whale: One Species at a Time

Aerial view of two bowhead whales swimming in the ocean.

In the episode of One Species at a Time, writer Karen Romano Young takes an icebreaker to Barrow, Alaska, to join in the festival of Naluqatak and learn about the intimate relationship between the Inupiat Eskimos and the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). Listen as she tells Ari Daniel Shapiro how the whole community turns out for whale hunt, how the bowhead nourishes the Inupiat, both physically and spiritually—and how the hunt is proving to be an unexpected gift to scientists.

Encyclopedia of Life and Atlantic Public Media