Alotsistoam Kuyanagkilramuk Vatene Tlu Atlhakume Nutarame
(MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR)
THE ARCTIC COASTAL ZONE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH, P. O. BOX 69, BARROW ALASKA 99723
TELEPHONE (907) 852-2611
Issue No: Eight______________Part 1_____________Date: December, 1977
WHALERS FACE-OFF OPPONENTS IN TOKYO
FOR IWC SHOWDOWN

NSB STRATEGY TAKES WHALERS TO TOKYO

When NSB Mayor Eben Hopson met with Vice President Walter Mondale at the White House on November 1st, he was told that the U.S. would try to make up for its failure to file an objection to the IWC bowhead subsistence whaling moratorium by convincing the IWC to lift the moratorium at its special meeting on December 6th in Tokyo.

Earlier NSB impressions were that the Japanese Government wanted to bargain increased sperm whale commercial quotas for a bowhead subsistence quota, and it was not clear that the Inupiat community should have anything to do with the Tokyo meeting. Some felt that Inupiat participation in the Tokyo IWC meeting would amount to de facto recognition of IWC jurisdiction over Inupiat subsistence whaling, especially if commercial quotas were to be traded for subsistence

Alaskan Whalers Meet Japanese Whalers in Tokyo

This photograph was taken by Naoahi Usui, a reporter with the Associated Press in Tokyo assigned to cover the IWC meeting. During a closed session of the IWC, Billy Neakok, NSB Director of Conservation and Environmental Security, took the press downstairs to meet with Japanese whalers demonstrating in front of the Foreign Ministry. Neakok, above, is using model Umiak and crew made by Lori Kingik of Pt. Hope, to explain Inupiat subsistence whaling technique. Next to Neakok translating between the whalers is Mrs. Mitstrho Arakaki whose assistance to the Inupiat Whalers was provided by the Alaska State Office in Tokyo.
The Japanese whalers commented that their families used to hunt the whale in similar small boats when Japan’s whaling was exclusively for subsistence. After the IWC meeting, Neakok joined Charles “Etok” Edwardsen to travel to Hokaido with Mrs. Arakaki to establish relations with the Ainu, and include them in the Arctic solidarity of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

It wasn’t until the last week in November that it was decided that an Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission delegation should attend the meeting. It was learned that the IWC’s Scientific Committee had met earlier in Australia to reconsider the low North Pacific Sperm Whale quotas set at the regular meeting of the IWC in Australia last June. Apparently the IWC had used biological data from the more depleted South Pacific Sperm Whale population for determining the maximum sustainable yield from the less depleted North Pacific Sperm Whale population, and the result was a quota reduction from 7,000 in 1976-77 to only 763 for 1977-78, a figure that would wipe out the Japanese and Russian Pacific whaling industry. Toward the end of November, it was announced that the IWC’s Scientific Committee had recommended a North Pacific sperm whale quota of 6,444, only a 10% reduction from the 1976 quota.

ARCTIC RADIO NEWS PROGRAM AVAILABLE
“Alaska Today”, a weekly 10-minute news broadcast is now being produced by the North Slope Borough. The purpose of the program is to familiarize listeners with the major problems facing those living in the Arctic, for example, oil and gas development, land claims issues, fish and game management and subsistence lifestyles. The program is aimed at audiences both throughout Alaska and outside.
“Alaska Today” is currently being presented on KHAR in Anchorage Sundays at 9:00 p.m. and is being made available to commercial and regional radio stations. The first four programs are entitled “The Story of Oil in Alaska,” “The Pipeline and Alaska Native Land Claims,” Management and the Alaskan “Energy Development and Small Communities.”

The program is being produced under the direction of Marty Strauss of Advocacy Planning Associates. Mr. Strauss is a former VISTA worker with the Mauneluk Association where he worked as an environmental planner. Stations interested in presenting the program should contact “Alaska Today,” 610 H Street, Anchorage, AK 99501, or call 907/274-2414. “Coastal Zone Village.”

Thus, it was clear that the Tokyo bowhead moratorium negotiations would be far more complex than a matter of swapping quotas.

THE CANADIAN PROBLEM
The remarkable political cooperation between the U.S. and the whale conservationists, symbolized by the appointment of Tom Garrett, a Washington, D.C. conservationist lobbyist, as Deputy U.S. Commissioner to the IWC, clearly had been damaged by the bowhead subsistence ban controversy. The Government was clearly embarrassed by its complicity in the conservationist plot to use the IWC to ban subsistence whaling, and Vice President Mondale’s assurances that the U.S. would work to overturn the ban meant that the conservationists had to go elsewhere for political support of its fight to ban subsistence whaling along the Arctic Coast. As it turned out, “elsewhere” was the Canadian Government.

The NSB had heard that Canada might be a problem in October, and had communications been better between Barrow and Ottawa and the Canadian Arctic, the Inupiat whalers might have enjoyed Canada’s support in Tokyo. NSB officials heard in mid-November that the Canadian government was conferring with ITC about its bowhead subsistence policy, but there was no consultation between ITC and Barrow over the matter.

When the 12-person AEWC delegation caught the Northwest Orient Airlines 747 to Tokyo, William Aron and other members of the U.S. delegation were on board and expressed concern to the Inupiat whalers that there might be trouble getting the necessary 3/4 vote to establish a new bowhead quota. He said that Canada, France, New Zealand and Australia were likely to oppose the U.S. position on the restoration of the bowhead subsistence hunt.

THE U.S. POSITION
The position of the United States was to seek restoration of exemption from IWC regulation for subsistence bowhead whaling on condition of U.S. regulation featuring a cooperative bowhead stocks management program with the AEWC. In addition, the U.S. proposed that the National Marine Fisheries Service enforce a 1978 quota of 15 taken, 30 struck and lost, whichever occurred first.

 

Canadian Native Leaders Confer With Alaskan In Tokyo

Sam Raddi,  facing camera, and Randy Pokiak, left, from the Canadian Inuuialiuts’ Committee on Original Peoples’ Entitlement (COPE) with Arnold Brewer and Jacob Adams of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission during coffee break al the IWC meeting in Tokyo, Dec. 6-7, 1977.

 

Whalers At IWC Meeting
The Japanese Ministry in front of which Japanese whalers demonstrating in protest against their quota Alaskan WhalersDale Stotts and Charlie Edwardsen stopped to chat on their way in.

 

THE ALASKAN DELEGATION
The Alaskan delegation included the Inupiat whalers and State officials. The whalers were headed by NSB Mayor Eben Hopson, AEWC Chairman Jacob Adams, and Barrow Whaling Captains Association President Arnold Brewer, all of whom were included as members of the U.S. delegation, and traveled with diplomatic visas. They were accompanied by Gambell whalers Roger Silook, AEWC vice-chairman, and Dwayne Ozeeva; and NSB officials Billy Neakok, Charles Edwardsen, Dale Stotts, and John Buchholdt. Other Alaskans flying to Tokyo to defend subsistence whaling were Charles Meacham, Office of the Governor, and John Burns, Alaska Department of Fish and Game; State Representative Thelma Buchholdt; and NSB consultant Roger Lewis. And to insure that an accurate press account was written about the Tokyo meeting, NSB Mayor Eben Hopson arranged for Stanton Patty to take leave from the Seattle Times to come to Tokyo to observe. Patty is a veteran columnist specializing in Alaskan social and political development, and a long-time friend of Hopson.

Arriving in Tokyo after delays caused by mechanical problems with the aircraft in Anchorage, the delegation had three days over the weekend to get the lay of the land and politic with the various IWC delegations. A special surprise was the arrival of Sam Raddi and Randy Pokiak from the Canadian Inuvialuits’ Committee on Original Peoples Entitlement (COPE). Both Raddi and his associate Poknak were added to the Canadian IWC delegation at the last minute when Bob Delury, Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, notified Raddi that the Canadian government was planning to oppose the U.S. position, and in any event would have no Inuit delegates to the IWC. With less than 48 hours notice, Raddi pressured the Canadian government to add him and Pokiak to the Canadian delegation so that he could work to seek Canadian support of Inupiat subsistence whaling rights.

Raddi’s presence in Tokyo was good news, and provided the Inupiat whalers with insight into the politics of the Canadian delegation. Raddi’s success in coming to Tokyo to help defend subsistence whaling was in contrast to that of the Greenlandic Inuit. In late November, Hopson had telexed Denmark’s Greenland Minister in Copenhagen requesting that the Danes send either Moses Olsen or Angalamortug Olsen with Danish IWC Commissioner Einar Lehmke. According to Lehmke, the Greenland Ministry queried the Greenland Provincial Council with this request, but the Land Council did not send a Greenlander to Tokyo. NSB

Click here for part 2