Inuit Sea Hunting Heritage

The Arctic marine-mammal hunting tradition of Inuit peoples, built around the skin-covered umiak (the larger open boat used for whaling and transport) and the qajaq (kayak) for solo seal and walrus hunting. The toggling harpoon with a detachable foreshaft and an inflated sealskin float is a documented Thule-culture technology spread across the North American Arctic from roughly AD 1000. The Inuit Circumpolar Council, founded 1977, represents these communities, and bowhead and beluga subsistence hunts remain recognized under the International Whaling Commission’s aboriginal subsistence whaling category.