By NOAA Fisheries

In 2025, NOAA and the Alaska North Slope Borough successfully completed a survey to count bowhead and beluga whales in the U.S. and Canadian Beaufort Seas and Amundsen Gulf. This international, multi-agency, multi-species project was the result of 3 years of planning. It will directly contribute to continued food security of Iñupiat and Inuvialuit communities in villages of the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic.

Western Arctic bowhead whales (also called Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Sea bowhead whales) and Beaufort Sea beluga whales are critical subsistence and cultural resources for Iñupiat and Inuvialuit communities in the Arctic. To ensure these whale populations continue to thrive and support seasonal subsistence hunting, we need to understand how big they are.

NOAA and the Alaska North Slope Borough share responsibility for collecting data on bowhead whales. Both agencies provided considerable funding, staff support, and shared responsibility for planning and executing the project. The International Whaling Commission uses these data to determine bowhead whale harvest quotas (also known as strike limits).

NOAA and Fisheries and Oceans Canada also use data collected during the survey to assess the size and trend of the Beaufort Sea beluga whale population. Iñupiat and Inuvialuit communities hunt belugas and this population’s summer range overlaps with the range of Western Arctic bowhead whales.

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