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SCIENCETuesday 29 December 2015
Alaska’s Inuit link steady food supply to environment health
about these ships because
they’re going to disrupt our
hunting, the noise is disrupt-
ing the animals, the pollut-
ants, and that’s a threat to
food security,” Behe said.
The report, assembled
through visits to 15 Inuit vil-
lages and with 146 listed
authors, urges Arctic policy
decisions through the lens
of food. Inuit leaders want
the baseline data collect-
ed on the Arctic ecosystem
using both science and
indigenous knowledge,
Behe said.
A scientist researching
salmon might look first at
population dynamics. An
elder might taste the wa-
ter, look at streamside veg-
etation, check fish scales
and gauge the texture of
the meat, Behe said.
The report notes the frag-
mented nature of land,
ocean and wildlife man-
agement. State officials set
Men haul sections of whale skin and blubber, known as muktuk, as a bowhead whale is butchered in a field near Barrow, Alaska. hunting seasons.
The environment is changing and the Inuit, who consider themselves a part of it, want measures taken to protect their culture.
Federal officials oversee
(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
harvesting of marine mam-
DAN JOLING ly, and so do the seals. edge and science adviser. education and language. mals and industrial ocean
Associated Press “As soon as the sun comes More than 90 percent of “Our traditional foods are
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) out, it starts melting, or we the food purchased with much more than calories or fisheries. International
— Alaska Inuit hunter John have a heavy rain,” Good- cash in Alaska comes in nutrients; they are a lifeline
Goodwin for decades has win said. “Basically, it’s the from elsewhere and a reli- throughout our culture and agreements are consid-
hunted oogruk, the beard- rain that deteriorates the able food supply in more reflect the health of the en-
ed seal, a marine mammal ice real quick. We don’t urban communities like tire Arctic ecosystem,” the ered in salmon and migra-
prized for its meat, oil and have enough time to hunt.” Anchorage means afford- report’s authors said.
hide. The environment is chang- able prices and uninter- As changes arose, Inuit tory bird decisions. Sources
The largest of Alaska’s ice ing and the Inuit, who con- rupted service on groceries leaders began talking at
seals uses sea ice to rest sider themselves a part of shipped north by barge or public forums about food. within the United States
and birth pups, and after it, want measures taken jet. Their concept of secure
the long winter, when ice to protect their culture. A For the Inuit, who have food differed from the and internationally contrib-
breaks into floes, there’s a report issued this month survived for thousands of concept held by people
window of opportunity for by the Inuit Circumpolar years in one of the harsh- in academia and govern- ute to warming and pollut-
Goodwin to leave his home Council-Alaska, which ad- est climates on Earth, food ment, who spoke of nutri-
in Kotzebue and motor his vocates for Inuit coast vil- is the connection between tional value and purchas- ants affecting the Arctic.
boat between ice panels, lages from southwest to the past and today’s cul- ing power.
shoot seals and butcher north Alaska, calls for poli- ture, according to the re- At a meeting four years Researchers want a bet-
them before they migrate cies that protect Inuit tradi- port. ago, Behe recalled, some-
north through the Bering tional food and the Arctic Food is survival and identity. one asked whether the Inuit ter understanding on how
Strait. environment that produces Over millennia, the captur- were looking forward to in-
A hunting season that used it. ing of caribou or seals, the creased shipping because rapid change in the Arctic
to last weeks, however, has “When we say food secu- gathering of salmonberries, it would create more op-
shrunk. Ice that formerly rity, it has to do with the how they were processed, portunity to move in food. is affecting natural systems
froze 5-feet (1.5-meters) health of all of it,” said stored and shared was in- “Our people were say-
thick or more is a fraction of Carolina Behe, the organi- corporated into art, story- ing the exact opposite: and people.
that. Ice disappears quick- zation’s indigenous knowl- telling, dance, drumming, We’re really concerned
That’s also increasingly
important for the Arctic
Council, the eight-country
forum that promotes co-
operation and interaction
between Arctic countries,
said Fran Ulmer, chair of
the U.S. Arctic Research
Commission.
People who are causing
change in the Arctic from
greenhouse gases or pollu-
tion, Behe said, must take
responsibility for actions af-
fecting the Inuit.q
