This Day in Alaska History-January 28th, 1908
Strategic sex: Alaska’s beluga whales swap mates for long-term survival
In the icy waters of Alaska’s Bristol Bay, a new study reveals how a small population of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) survive the long haul through a surprising strategy: they mate with multiple partners over several years. The combination of long-term genetics, observation and careful analysis is starting to reveal some of the most intimate […]
Whale hunting began 5,000 years ago in South America, a millennium earlier than previously thought
The hunting of large whales goes back much further in time than previously thought. New research from ICTA-UAB and the Department of Prehistory of the UAB reveals that Indigenous communities in southern Brazil were hunting large cetaceans 5,000 years ago, around a thousand years before the earliest documented evidence from Arctic and North Pacific societies.\ […]
Whale-Alutiiq Word of the Week
Whale — Ar’uq, Arwaq (in Akhiok) Ar’ut amlertut. – There are many whales. Six species of baleen whales feed in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Each spring, grey, humpback, minke, fin, right, and blue whales swim by on their way to the Bering Sea, although many remain in the Kodiak area. For […]