Backyard Buoys project will give residents real time data such as wave height to whaling crews and communities throughout the North Slope. A system of buoys will be displaced across the slope this summer.
Nuiqsut's Napageak crew, captained by Thomas Napageak, landed the very first bowhead of the season on Aug. 29. It was a 29.5 foot whale.
“I think it was a little more stable, and there was a little bit more assurance that the ice you were on was not going to disintegrate on you that easy,” said whaling captain Gordon Brower.
The two men, who were both part of an active whaling crew, were in one of the boats on a towline, towing a whale to shore, when their boat flipped, according to fellow whalers who were there when it happened.
6-5-13 Risky ice for whaling - Barrow, Alaska, USA
Observations From Members 