Bowhead whales are the most important subsistence species for coastal and island communities in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas. We work with subsistence whalers to attach satellite transmitters to bowheads to study their movements, habitat use, and behavior throughout their range including migration routes and timing, feeding areas, diving behavior, time spent within the spring and summer ranges. We also study how bowhead whales interact with oil and gas activities. We are investigating the use of tags that record oceanographic information to identify ocean features, such as fronts where whales prefer to feed. We are developing an acoustic tag that will record ambient sound and the vocal behavior of the whales to better understand the effects of high noise level activities such as seismic surveys and drilling activity.
This project began in 2006 and is a collaboration among the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, Whaling Captain’s Associations of Barrow, Kaktovik, Gambell, and Savoonga, the Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk Hunters and Trappers Committees, the North Slope Borough, the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. The project is funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
