Absolutely amazing!!! Loved this & seeing the old cultures & new research coming together to discover more about some of the most majestic creatures on earth!!!

Humans be like: wow theres this legendary pokemon in our ocean, lets kill it.

Whaling in the traditional way is actually about way more than just tossing harpoons into the whale's body. Because the harpoons themselves don't really do all that much harm to the animal, but what the Hapoons DO do is attach the animal itself to the boat which it will drag behind it as it tries to flee. The boat will slow the whale down until it is too exhausted to go on. It is then that the Harpooner brings out a lance, a harpoon with a wide flat blade, which he will stick in the whale and pull out again before repeating the process a couple of times. The object here is to sever the whale's main arteries which is what actually kills the whale. Of course all of that means getting very close to a wounded and angry animal which WILL strike out at you. Which brings us to the reason why the whalers cut the flukes off after the whale is killed, the whale's tail is a powerful weapon and by cutting the flukes off, they basically diffused the bomb. The Bowhead and its close relative the Right whale (Called that way because they were the "Right whale" to hunt) are slow swimmers and float when killed. So when commercial whaling wiped both species almost completely out, the whalers began to hunt the Gray Whale and found out to their horror that that species didn't go down without a good fight. They would actually launch themselves out of the water onto the boats and many sailor didn't come home after meeting the "Devil fish"

Interesting and valuable research the Whale Biologist have done and a good look into how the Native peoples still want to keep alive their heritage and traditions. Well narrated and high film quality make this video enjoyable to watch.

The baleen whales are the most massive animals, it's surprising that they don't seem to fight back when humans attack them.

Just like humans can remember roads, regular routine paths, whales have ability to learn waterways when They are babies. As cities develop, and we remember our childhood places without GPS in the same have they have same tendencies

Modern science has mapped the Bowheads genome and they say its possible they can live up to 268 years. This means that a whale born in 1775 before the signing of the Declaration of Independence could still be alive today. That is amazing.

What's the name of the traditional tool used at 17:55 which allows for listening to the whales underwater?

Glad I found this

this is not about the Bowhead Whale its abut hunting the Bowhead Whale. :(

Wow! (Wonder where the polar bears and foxes were during the butchering...! There must have been a sentry posted somewhere, dontcha think?!)

"simple cleaning job particular calcium of Louisville" @6:17 Subtitles on 😂

I hate how people are like "Ughhh inuits are such ass holes" I've 2 things to say. It wasn't the inuits who decimated whale populations, it was Americans, English, Norwegians and Japanese. It was commercial whaling not the tribes hunting massive whales in polar waters using little skin boats, spears and harpoons. And also clearly ye have never had to depend on nature for food. If you had you'd realise you only take what you need to survive

175 yrs old or more! 211yrs!

was it just me or did anyone else wanted the whale to break the ice so the scientists chasing it to tag it would fall into the water? hahaha 😇

A documentary with very little footage of the actual animal. Just lots of talking about it. Kinda like watching a documentary on Bigfoot!

There are Greenland sharks swimming about that would regard these whales as youngsters

Someone has the contact of the sound researcher. Mia?

music in this?

Anyone in this comment section complaining about the whales being hunted is a HYPOCRITE if you are not vegan. This isn't just culture. This is eating to survive. You come from a privileged place telling them to just eat something else, when you can just go get your food from a grocery store.

holy shit i want that hat that the guy is wearing at 33:08 so bad

They live to be old as God made them and God bless his beautiful beautiful animals

Its upsetting that the indigenous people don't suspend hunting for a generation or so. Until the numbers come back. If they come back. After all the years and years they've been taking from the whale. They could give back.

Bowhead Whale Frozen Planet 2

I have massive respect for the Inuit people. Here in Ireland we hunted the North Atlantic Right whale / Ceartmhíol mór an tuaiscirt or just Ceartmhíol mór like the Inuk hunt the Bowhead whale. Now before you all attack me this was before commercial whaling when there were thousands of them. And one whale would last and island or coastal community weeks or months even. Thus was until the Companies came in and decimated the population to where these beautiful animals that kept hundreds upon thousands of people alive were verner all killed off. They destroyed the sustainable system of Right hunting in Ireland Now Ireland is one of the driving forces in Northern Right whale conservation

Couldnt that ancient weapon just be something recent hunters used ?

Wikipedia: "Bowhead whale." Files: 1: "Geoglyphs Worldwide." 2. "Visual Metaphors". 3. "Variety." Etc.

here from rav

Mmm yes, the hweyl

That makes no sense. Oil and water do not mix.

What's the name of the narrator?

The tags are getting scraped off on the ice.

How are the people counting sure they not recounting the same whales?

Heard these whales can live over 200 years

They say here the bowhead is 2nd in size to the blue whale. However when you look it up the Fin whale is 2nd. So which is it?

The 1800s decimated the American buffalo and bear

Personally im a vegetarian but this sort of hunting & meat eating i don't have issues with. Animals are not being tortured their entire lives, they are not being mass produced, environments are not being destroyed, it's not about making making money & greed & almost every part of the animal is used with minimal wastage. So much of the developed world has forgotten or don't care how to do this. So many humans have taken our knowledge & abilities for granted & it's destroying this planet. We need to start learning from people who still practice traditional cultural practices to live in harmony with nature.

I don't understand why are they killing the bowhead whales

Hell yeah!

Jordan Peterson would be fascinated by this

Yea how can you kill a Animal that was alive during the Civil war

These hunters hunt for food and only once a year. By that they let the whales multiply. They don’t overhunt these whales. They have respect to these creatures. Hopefully whaling will stop especially the commercial ones.

I respect their culture. I personally feel there should be heavier regulations.. like maybe peach tribe can have one or two. Because they said a whale can feed a whole tribe for like a year. So two whales is more than enough per tribe. Because we as a whole of humanity have chosen to allow bad people destroy our planet, we must all suffer the consequences of that. We sat around and did nothing while our politicians let corporations control them. We sat by and did nothing while our ocean slowly started filling with garbage. We did nothing when they started overfishing our oceans even though we barely know anything about our oceans we continue to allow the total decimation of our oceans without even understanding the full consequences of what we have done. Majority of humanity does not even need any food from the sea to survive as the land provides more than enough. We did nothing. And deserve the consequences of our refusal to act sooner.

Leave these creatures alone.

who are the 18 people who gave this a thumbs down??

Whaling should be punishable by throwing the guilty individuals in a lake filled with hungry piranhas!!!

I wonder what that tastes like?!

I have nothing but respect for the Inuit and Inupiat cultures but personally can't justify the taking of a life of a being that has been alive in the oceans for perhaps 300 years. The knowledge and wisdom of such a creature is immeasurable and to kill it to eat when that meat could be replaced with something else is unconscionable to me. Let them be.

Unfortunately the artic and Antarctican animal and way of live will be the first to go my friends... It's not entirely our fault Man has been living through the ice age into interglacial modern man is living in an interglacial where in the beginning of it The earth has warm and cooled multiple times this happens all the time we're in a warming phase but yes global warming and all the greenhouse gases and pollution has caused it to happen faster and more vigorously than ever before

it survived 175 years and humans killed him to eat , estimate age 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Yes they can afford the snow driver, but they cannot afford something else to eat???Sientists who are hunting with them are human trash. Big strong man, 10 against 1 animal. 🤦🤦😘😱😱

look at that bastard demon trying to kill them for food

I thought this is a whale sanctuary?? What kind of scientist's are these guys?? You tradition is over or do you want your grandchildren to only know whales from stories they get told.. EVERY WHALE IS TO MUCH. Ah they are not getting old, why, what a coincidence 😠

Whatever helps them sleep at night. I don't think it fair one culture can keep whale hunting but not the other. Also, this wasn't about whales, it was about scientist and numbers. I learned nothing but they can be old

Why did you killed a whale 🐋 Don’t you feel sad 😢

Stop murdering these beautiful animals bro. What r u gonna do wit it?

I hated it!!!! Whales are to be protected not slaughtered!!!!!

“European contact” 🙄 riiiight