Episode Information

Whale Hunters follows one crew of Inupiaq Eskimo whalers as they engage in the annual spring bowhead hunt on thinning sea ice near Barrow, Alaska, and risk all to capture and kill an animal they both hunt and revere. Above the Arctic Circle, men paddling fragile, sealskin boats hunt a 60-ton animal. The beast they seek is a mystery of the deep. Now, bowhead whales are thriving but the hunt is endangered. And as the Arctic melts, a tradition that has lasted for millennia may be coming to an end. ‘Inside: Whale Hunters’ depicts one crew of Inupiaq Eskimo whalers - “people of the ice whale,” as they engage in the annual spring bowhead hunt on thinning ice sheets off Barrow, Alaska. They risk all to capture and kill an animal they both hunt and revere - an animal without which Inupiaq Eskimo culture as we know it might not exist.