The Mystery of Alaska’s Disappearing Whales

The story was originally published in Undark.

The time had come for Roswell to learn to hunt beluga whales. Growing up in a small city in northwest Alaska, a store of beluga meat was a big part of the culture. Thousands of small white whales migrate to Kotzebue Sound each summer and are hunted every year. Sharing the catch with the community was one of the reasons why whale skin and blubber was prized.

After the ice has melted, only a few hunters still spend the late weeks of spring waiting for belugas to show up. Out of necessity, many people have switched to hunting bearded seals.

The beluga population in the region dwindled from thousands to hundreds in the 1980s. There is more to Kotzebue than meets the eye. Beluga numbers have fallen off in a number of regions over the last 50 years. The whales were pushed towards the brink by influences decades ago. Climate change, increased ship traffic, and chemical pollutants are some of the stresses that threaten to finish the job after hunting has stopped.

Understanding how the whales respond to these stresses is more important than understanding the stresses themselves, according to some scientists. Belugas create cultures by passing knowledge and customs from generation to generation. With climate change and other human activities changing the world at an alarming rate, belugas will probably have to rely on innovative cultural practices to adapt.

Other animals can hold onto traditions even after they stop making sense. Greg O'Corry-Crowe is a behavioral ecologist at Florida Atlantic University.

The social conservatives are trying to find the pioneers when the change is so rapid. At the same time, Indigenous people are faced with their own dilemma. If Indigenous groups give up hunting belugas, they could lose knowledge that has helped sustain them for thousands of years in the north.

Scientists and philosophers think that animals can learn. Scientists debated the idea of animals accumulating knowledge over time. The killer whale is one of the animals that helped popularize that idea.