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Marine mammals are an important component of coastal Alaska Native life and are the foundation of rich cultural traditions. In the Chugach Region of Alaska, identity is shaped around the interplay of humans and marine mammals. The ocean makes up a significant portion of subsistence practices for all seven Tribes and are a central component of food security and community resilience, providing multiple positive health outcomes that impact both individual and community health status. Federal law defines subsistence as “the customary and traditional uses by rural Alaska residents of wild, renewable resources for direct personal or family consumption as food, shelter, fuel, clothing, tools or transportation; for the making and selling of handicraft articles out of nonedible by-products of fish and wildlife resources taken for personal or family consumption; and for the customary trade, barter or sharing for personal family consumption.” An active subsistence lifestyle promotes physical health by keeping people active and reducing the likelihood of certain diseases linked with Western diets. The lifestyle promotes mental health by providing a pathway for people to connect with their culture and community through teaching, learning, and sharing. The impact of marine mammals extends beyond physical and mental health as it provides a source of cash-based revenue in economically disadvantaged communities to Tribal Members through the sale of arts. Prioritization of maintaining this connection to food and land resulted in the emphasis on food sovereignty and subsistence resources in CRRC’s programs.  

Over centuries, we (the Indigenous people of the Chugach Region) have perfected our knowledge on marine mammal behaviors, how to hunt successfully, skinning, butchering, rendering oil, proper hide preparation, and skin sewing. This knowledge is handed down from generation to generation and is vital to our continued heritage and existence. Traditional ecological knowledge is unique to the Chugach Region and held closely. It is important that this knowledge is documented and shared with managing agencies as it holds as much significance and importance as scientific data. CRRC’s Marine Mammal Program aims to improve the conservation and management of marine species within the Chugach Region, while collaborating with Federal and State agencies to ensure healthy marine mammal stocks, work towards co-management strategies, and advocate for continuity of our subsistence lifestyle especially when it comes to the issues of blood quantum inhibiting the continuation of cultural traditions to younger generations.  

CRRC’s Marine Mammal Program is actively working towards developing a culturally competent co-management plan for the marine mammal species within the Chugach Region. Co-management relationships with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) will improve the conservation of and sustainable management of marine mammals in a rural and remote region where Indigenous people are keenly aware of the importance and interconnectedness of reproductive performance, survivorship, abundance, and vital rates. The well-being of marine mammals is essentially one-in-the-same to the well-being of Tribal Members. Passing down cultural practices depends on a continued relationship with the marine mammals that also call the region home. CRRC anticipates creation of cooperative agreements between CRRC, member Tribes, and Federal managers that embody the spirit of local subsistence harvesters, while supplementing important biological and harvest monitoring research.  

Sustainable subsistence harvesting of marine mammals means resources must be protected from over-harvesting and managed with a view of maintaining the abundance of these species. Alaska Natives are stewards of the land and water. In the past, our sustainable management practices were so successful, and large in scale, that as the colonizers arrived, it was mistaken as unmanaged. To ensure the continued abundance and diversity needed for the health of this world, it is paramount to integrate traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into conservation strategies. There is an important balance of human needs with management. Conservation programs could be strengthened through the sharing of knowledge surrounding what activities should be permitted, restricted, or prohibited. CRRC encourages the exchange of TEK regarding conservation, management, and utilization of marine mammals within the lower Cook Inlet, Prince William Sound, and Copper River Delta areas of Southcentral Alaska. Both Indigenous and Western science simultaneously ensure the continuity of healthy, stable marine mammal populations and the subsistence lifestyle. Indigenous science provides deep local knowledge and a long history of observation-based strategy and phenomena, while Western science incorporates scientific method-aligned techniques and technologies to produce a robust and holistic understanding of marine mammals as a significant element of the marine ecosystem.