Fish ON!

It's been awhile since I wrote. That doesn't mean there hasn't been a lot going on...mostly long days at work...really marathons. There don't seem to be any boundaries surrounding work hours. Basically, if you're awake, you work. I get email from colleagues on any of the 7 days and at any of the 24 hours in those days. So it isn't any wonder that I've fallen prey to a monster cold. In fact, being sick is the only reason I have some free time! I guess that's how you get a day off!

Again, we must revisit the whale is not a fish observation in order to explain the title of this entry. I thought about that when I wrote the title. However, Whale ON does not have quite the same panache, so there you have it.

Fall whaling season is here. It causes great excitement. When the first whale was caught, the mukluk telegraph was in full swing. We went to the beaching area at lunch to see if we could see it being brought to shore. The crew who took the whale are in the boat in the first picture. The flag tells us what crew it is. All of the boats around are helping to escort in the whale. They will all get a share of the meat once it's cut up. You can see a fin to the left of the orange buoy in the next picture. The whale is tied to the buoy. That's a helper boat escorting it in.

The fluke is separated from the whale to decrease drag as the whale is brought to shore.

The head of the whale is separated from the body right after the whale gives itself to the crew. This is to allow the spirit to be released from the body and go on to its next life. Separating the head is common on hunts of all animals as the Iñupiaq are always reverent of the spirit of the animals who have given themselves to them.

On this day, a total of 3 whales were taken. Also, the first whale ever taken in Wainwright was brought in. We went back after work (well phase one of the workday, anyway) to check out the progress on the butchering. It was windy (blowing about 25 MPH) and those workers looked pretty cold. You can see what a big job this was. They had all three whales on the old runway by the military hangars from the 50s and they finished the job just as the sun was setting. Now, normally I'd think this was pretty gross. You probably are thinking so, too (and these are the least graphic of the pictures we took). But you've got to remember it's the way of life here. It's how they survive today and how they survived 100 years ago. 

When you stop to think about it, that's pretty cool...to continue a tradition that's been going on for that long. 

Oh and just for grins, here's Husband sporting his sealskin hat...nice and toasty for the cold days!