A long day bringing in the whale and a long night still ahead
Thursday, September 5, 2013 at 10:00PM 
If Daniel Sovalik looks tired, he's got good reason. I took this picture about 9:00 PM. Shortly after I got up this morning, I heard Herbert Ipalook, Daniel's captain, announce over the VHF that his crew was heading out. Their whale was a lot bigger than we on shore had thought and that two to three hour estimate on how long it would take them to return wasn't even close. Four or five hours into it, I climbed onto the roof with my 100 to 400 mm as I heard they were pulling into sight. The first thing I saw was two polar bears nuzzling and nudging each other on the beach. Then, out in the ocean to the east of the polar bears I spotted the boats towing the whale on a course soon to take them into direct alignment with the bears and me. Even so, they were traveling very slowly and to stay in water deep enough to tow the whale through had to take the long way around. They still had close to two hours to go. And now, because it is very important to get the maktak off the whale and open up the meat to prevent it from overheating and spoiling the meat (this can happen even in temperatures well below zero, the whalers will work non-stop into the wee hours, perhaps through the entire night.
Reader Comments (1)
No pictures of those expectant polar bears?