Political Strategies for the Historical Victory in Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling in the Alaskan Arctic : The International Whaling Commission Meeting in Brazil, 2018

For four decades, the priority of indigenous subsistence whalers, Iupiat and St. Lawrence Island (SLI) Yupik in Alaska, U.S., have been the protection of subsistence way of life, especially hunt for bowhead whales.The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is an international government body charged with the conservation and management of whales.Their decision has power to possibly ban or reduce quota for Alaska Native subsistence whaling.In September 2018, the IWC delegates approved renewal of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC)'s bowhead whale quota for seven more years, as well as its automatic renewal, as long as the population of whales remain healthy and sustainable.The aboriginal subsistence whalers in Alaska welcomed the decision as the historical victory.This paper will explore the importance of subsistence whaling and long political struggles of Iupiat and SLI Yupik in the Alaskan Arctic, history of the IWC and the AEWC, and political strategies that the AEWC took for the successful IWC meeting in 2018.Living in Alaska for 18 years, I was the senior researcher for the Alaska State government research institution, specializing subsistence hunting and fishing in the Alaskan Arctic.For various projects, our research team has collaborated with the North Slope Borough, the AEWC, and subsistence whalers in Utqiavik, the largest whaling community in Alaska.