This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
I'm travelling through the Arctic, the Land of the Midnight Sun.
The most amazing view.
For thousands of years, only the hardiest hunters and herders
lived in this inhospitable land.
But now the Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth.
Go back. Go back.
As it thaws, new riches are being revealed.
This is what it's all about - the oil.
All eyes are turning north.
For one bright summer, I will live with the people of the Arctic.
Absolutely loving it.
This is the real thing.
I want to understand how their lives are changing,
and discover what the future holds for this great wilderness.
Alaska is America's last great wilderness
and its last real frontier.
On a day like today, you really get
the feeling that this place goes on forever and ever.
There for the exploitation, there for the frontiers men and women
to get in there and take the natural resources
that this place is just full of.
I'm heading north into a land of vast untapped wealth.
The sea provides a seemingly endless harvest, worth billions of dollars.
All you've got to do in order to catch fish
is be a little bit smarter than a fish.
The pioneer spirit is still strong in Alaska.
I join a modern-day gold rush at the bottom of the sea.
You can really see that stuff, it's shining away.
Alaska is where American dreams come true.
But not for everyone.
This landscape has sustained the Inupiaq people
for thousands of years.
But their traditional way of life is now at odds with the modern world.
It's emotional for me.
And they're suspicious of outsiders.
No pictures.
I want to understand the nature of this ancient relationship
between the hunter and the whale
and question what's more important -
the life of a whale or the end of a tradition?
If they want to try to stop sperm whaling, we're going to fight.
My journey starts south of the Arctic Circle
in Prince William Sound,
where thousands of salmon streams flow down into the Gulf of Alaska
and out into the Pacific Ocean.
In late summer, these waters are alive
with one of the greatest wild salmon runs on Earth.
Salmon fishing is one of Alaska's most lucrative industries,
worth $11 billion a year.
I'm on my way to meet a family making its fortune from the sea.
Somewhere up ahead are the trawlers
that I'm going to be living on for the next few days.
Right now, they're working around the clock
because it's this time of year that all the salmon are preparing
to run the gauntlet to their spawning grounds.
Wow!
Industrial over-fishing is now a huge problem all over the world.
I want to find out whether it's an issue here.
Hey, there. Tim, I presume. How are you?
Good. I just saw that...
I just saw that haul come in.
That looked very successful, is that a good amount?
Yeah, that's about what we catch, you know.
'I've come to meet the Cabana family.
'They've offered to take me on board and show me the ropes.'
Hi, I'm Berry. Hey, Berry...
'The Cabanas spend three months every year living out at sea.
'At the helm is Tim Cabana, the skipper.
'He's supported by his wife Berry
'and their children, 19-year-old Kami and 17-year-old Tanner.
'Work on board stops for no man, and within minutes of my arrival
'the Cabanas are putting out the nets for the next catch.
'Everyone on the crew has their own specific job
'and, at first, I'm not quite sure what to do.
'So, in order to get stuck in, I have to get properly kitted out.'
I think they'll fit.
This really is fishermen's gear,
isn't it?
You're ready to go.
Bubbles are a deterrent for the fish
and so I've just got to make as many bubbles as I can.
I've got to keep them in the net until we're able to pull them up.
Shall I keep doing this?
The Cabanas make a lot of money.
Tim's boat alone brings in 15,000 kilos a day,
about $12,000 worth,
and they fish for 100 days in a row.
These things are flapping around so much,
you just get splattered by them.
But what I've just been told is a lot of the splat
is actually bits of jellyfish, and, of course, that stings.
And I'm just realising that they're right
because I've got a bit on my chin and a bit on my eye.
TIM: Those jellies will burn you.
Yeah, they're burning already. Are they burning already?
Are you experiencing jelly? A little bit.
Everybody should experience that. What are you supposed to do about it?
There isn't anything you can do about it.
You can wipe it off with a paper towel, but...
when it gets water on it, like two hours from now, it'll sting again.
Is that right? Yeah. OK.
The profits from fishing are staggering and the crew receive their fair share.
Even 17-year-old Tanner, who's meant be at school,
is earning serious pocket money.
He's making 1,000 bucks a day. That's why he can't go to school.
Would you go to school if you were making 1,000 bucks a day?
I wouldn't need to go to school!
Tim has three brothers out here, all operating their own boats.
The business was started by their father, Roy,
who still insists on coming out to sea.
My name's Bruce. Bruce?
Real pleasure to meet you, sir.
'Now aged 83, Roy came to Alaska from Indiana as a young man,
'hoping to make his fortune.'
I hear you're responsible for all of this?
It literally is one big family.
The four brothers with their four boats,
a few friends helping out, but the same people year after year.
It's...it's a family affair.
Each day, the tender boat turns up to take the catch away.
The Cabanas' fish will be packed in ice and shipped across the world.
Almost half the catch will go to Japan where Alaskan salmon
is highly prized.
Just offloading all our fish now through a vacuum pump,
which is quite delicate, apparently.
And then they're weighed and then shipped back to port,
which means that we can stay out here and fish again first thing tomorrow,
while this just goes back every night, taking the fish that we've caught.
This is commercial fishing, and it's all about profit.
For the Cabanas, fish equals money.
And now I'm seeing just how much fish is being sucked out of the sea here.
We're going to get out of here so Nath can unload.
'With the money they make from three months' hard graft,
'the Cabanas can afford to take the rest of the year off.
'After a long holiday in Hawaii, they return home to Alaska
'and the ski resort of Girdwood,
just 50 miles from here.'
So, for you two, it's all about skiing?
And for you two, it's all about fishing?
No, I like the skiing.
Oh, you like the skiing as well.
So it's just Tim? No.
No, I've taught every one of these people how to ski.
Tim and I are up there on the morning on a powder day.
The boys were two years old and I skied behind them with a diaper bag.
They could ski, but they couldn't go to the bathroom.
LAUGHTER
It's 5.30am and we're already on our way to the next hunting ground.
Tim and his brothers work together in what's known as a wolf pack,
taking it in turns to trap their prey.
It's ruthlessly efficient, and they get almost every fish.
Unlike trawling, which can cause massive damage to the sea bed,
the net is simply drawn across the channel.
The end is then pulled in by the skiff, corralling the fish inside.
OK!
Finally, the bottom is drawn closed with a purse line,
which is why this is called purse seine fishing.
The whole of this is an enclosed, like, bowl of netting,
so once they're in there, they're not going anywhere.
This looks good, huh?
Once the catch is in, the crew grab their meals while they can
before they're back out on deck,
ready for the next set.
This summer has been a record season for the Cabana family.
I've made over half a million dollars. That's what we've grossed.
You've made over half a million dollars?
Substantially over.
Really? And that's just this...? This boat, yeah.
Then you've got the four and the co-operative is between the four brothers.
We've made several million plus.
OK.
All you've got to do in order to catch fish
is be a little bit smarter than a fish, you know!
Really? That doesn't say much for the fishermen!
No. You've got to be a little smarter than them and you can keep them in your net.
The profits may be huge, but it's hard, physical work.
19-year-old Kami stacks the corks and makes it look effortless.
Hey, Bruce, want to try and stack the corks? Try and stack the corks? Yeah.
Kami, let's show him how to stack the corks!
I stand over here and kind of do it and just roll them around.
Ah. Not clever.
Never let go of your corks. Yep.
This is getting a little bit of a pointy head to it.
My corks are a disaster and in danger of collapse.
Don't... No!
It's not going to fall.
Honestly, not on my watch.
What are we going to call that - Mount Bruce?
I'm not sure this is exactly how it normally looks,
this mountain here they're calling Mount Bruce.
It's supposed to be quite orderly
so that all the net flows out without getting snagged.
Kami's 19, she just does it without even breaking into a sweat.
I, on the other hand, am a little bit all over the place.
Luckily, the net goes back out without a snag, much to my relief.
Bruce, it doesn't matter what it looks like, as long as it goes out good.
I'm amazed by the number of fish being hauled out of the sea.
But Tim tells me
it's one of the most tightly regulated fisheries in the world
and is totally sustainable.
It's super-well managed. Our fisheries will last
for 100 years here,
as long as they keep managing them the way they're managing them.
Commercial fishing permits are strictly limited
and, at $150,000 dollars per boat, they don't come cheap.
And there are artificial hatcheries producing billions of extra fish,
which form a large part of this catch.
What do you foresee as the problems for this industry
in this part of the world in the future?
I don't really see any problems here, you know.
Really? Because fishing in the rest of the world is a big problem.
Out in the oceans, there's a massive depletion... I know, 're still buying permits
and looking forward to our kids doing the same thing we're doing.
I think 30 years from now this will be a profitable business.
Despite Tim's assurances,
I still wonder about the long-term impact on the ecosystem.
You know, Russell's pretty strong...
The season's almost over and the Cabanas are starting to take it easy.
Whoo! If you go, I will.
I don't know, you know what? I'm too old for that, you know.
I don't know, Bruce, you look pretty good to me.
Oh, he's using excuses. Jeez.
Oh, man!
Yeah! Whoo!
Yeah!
All right!
The Cabanas believe in what they're doing and work hard for their money.
They have an affluent lifestyle and a strong family bond.
This is how we make our living
but it's also kind of a way of life.
We've been doing it forever.
This is how we grew up.
So it's kind of cool that my kids get to do the same thing,
grow up and have the same experiences that I did.
Berry's dad was a fisherman, you know,
and she grew up on a tender, instead of a fishing boat.
It's a great way to raise your kids.
Yeah.
..Three!
Everyone's drinking beer, music's on.
Bit of meat on the barbecue and, er...
and a lot of fish in the tanks, people seem pretty chilled.
And...they're a really happy bunch.
That's awful good, isn't it?
Really good. What's the secret to barbecuing this? It's fresh.
Yeah, fresh.
I'm hitching a ride on the tender boat back to town
to continue my journey north through Alaska.
Guys, I'm going to run away. It's been great, man.
Really nice to meet you. Thanks for helping out.
No, real pleasure. You're a great deckhand!
Thanks, Bruce. Thank you so much. Yeah! Enjoy the rest of your season.
One more day, we'd have made a fisherman out of you!
Back to port!
OK.
Stay well, guys.
Thanks so much.
Enjoy the rest of the season.
I was initially unsure about the industrial nature
of this fishing business, and although I still have
some questions,
I'm told that, if managed well, the fishing here will go on forever.
Alaska has 34,000 miles of coastline,
harbouring unimaginable wealth.
As well as its fisheries,
there are vast reserves of oil, gas and minerals under the sea bed.
These riches have been a magnet for pioneers and dreamers
for hundreds of years, and nothing fires the imagination like gold.
I'm travelling to a town called Nome,
100 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle
on the shores of the Bering Sea,
to meet some modern-day gold-diggers.
At the turn of the last century,
Nome was the site
of one of the most famous gold rushes in history.
In the last five years the price of gold has tripled
and Nome is luring a new wave of prospectors.
This is Spencer Phillips, from Birmingham, Alabama,
in the Deep South.
He comes here for three months every year
with his father, Steve, in search of gold.
Spencer, how long has your dad been coming to this beach?
We started coming up here when I was 15 and that was 18 years ago.
And there's still gold here? Absolutely.
Not as much, but there's still some gold here.
Eventually we arrive at Spencer and Steve's camp.
Home sweet home. Indeed.
Steven.
Hello, there. I'm Bruce.
Pleasure to meet you. Nice to meet you.
Absolutely. Well, you've got by far the best-looking hut on the beach.
The others all look quite dilapidated,
but this looks amazing.
And we catch our rainwater here. Yes.
And let it go into the shower,
so we don't have to haul as much water from the rivers.
Where's the nearest river?
About four miles, the Penny.
And then another mile beyond that's the Cripple River.
And are any of those gold-bearing rivers?
All of them. Really?
All this area... Alaska has got a lot of gold.
A lot of all kinds of things in Alaska. Alaska is a rich state.
Steve and Spencer are part of a small, eccentric community of miners
who make camp here each summer.
All the gold-diggers are men,
who have left their families down south in pursuit of riches,
the remnants of America's last great gold rush.
They discovered there was actually fine gold on the beach
and so then they called this the golden sands of Nome.
They weren't golden but there's gold in the sands. So they'd have a claim,
the length of a shovel that way and the length of a shovel that way,
from the beach to the tundra, and that was it. And they could get enough money...
This place was littered with people? It was whitened with tents, it looked like snow.
Today the best gold is found at the bottom of the sea,
using bizarre, home-made dredging machines.
The prospectors dive down to the sea bed
and use a long hose to hoover up the sand.
They spend up to nine hours a day sucking up all the silt and stones
into their sluice box on the surface,
where the tiny specks of gold collect at the bottom.
With freezing temperatures and terrible visibility,
dredging at sea is a risky business.
Things can easily go wrong.
One of the divers, Lonny, has run into trouble just after launching.
He just got swamped. His transfer broke.
This is really bad.
His engine has failed in the middle of the breaking waves
and he has to turn around and make it to land.
Pull that end.
Over there, Ryan.
The back.
There's plenty of help here today,
but usually these men are out on their own
and minor problems can become life-threatening.
We had a rope pegging him down
and it caught on the prop and pulled the motor back under.
So, as soon as the outboard went back, he had no power left
and he was sort of at the mercy of the waves.
And, luckily, it wasn't so bad and we managed to get him back in.
But you can imagine, doing that on your own -
which they do most of the time - that could've been really quite serious.
Are you going to try the other one now? Yeah. Not to be outdone, he's found another one
and he's going straight back out. I think that pretty much sums up
the spirit of these guys.
They're determined.
The sea temperature here sometimes dips below zero.
Diving in the Bering Sea is not for the faint-hearted.
There was a guy drowned a few years ago up here,
in four feet of water
with his feet sticking out of the water, and drowned.
But it was his first trip.
He made some of his own decisions and they were wrong.
It's just the lure of gold.
In the comfort of Steve's cabin,
it's Alaskan salmon on the menu once again.
I could eat a whole one of those, it's so delicious. You may have to.
I ate a whole one.
Well... Did you catch this today?
Yes, today.
Absolute luxury, I've got a proper cot bed,
a sleeping bag, a pillow, all mod cons...
I've got a tiny little thing here I can go for a wee in in the night,
so I don't even have to go outside.
Genuinely, this place is set up.
It's amazing. And tomorrow I'm going dredging for gold out in the ocean,
the Bering Sea, which is a little bit perturbing,
but I'm in safe hands, so I'm going to get some sleep.
So what's the weather like today for dredging?
Right now, it's marginal. The rollers would rock the dredge around quite a bit
and make it not work good. We need a little more sunlight, too.
OK. Why do you need the sunlight?
Just for visibility? So you can see. So we can see gold.
You want to see that glitter at the bottom!
Gold does not glitter. It only shines.
No sparkling. The sparkling stuff...
Is the fool's gold.
Would it be fair to say you came up here to make your fortune
and ended up making it into a lifestyle?
No, no, we didn't come... We came for an adventure
and we still come for an adventure.
Gold is now worth over $1,200 an ounce
and Steve finds between one and two ounces a day.
What have we got in here, then? This looks exciting.
Let's look at some gold first. That's about $20,000.
Twenty grand? Out of 24 carat gold,
this is 22. 21, 22, right in there. That's high-grade gold you're getting. High-grade, yeah.
This is the kind of stuff I use to make jewellery with.
It's hard to come by.
I fabricate 'em and then I put little nuggets on 'em. The nuggets are natural.
They're not made up, they're the way nature made 'em.
It's sort of fun for me.
You got any earring holes? I haven't, I'm afraid, no.
Me neither. Otherwise I'd try them out.
The weather's improved, and conditions are looking good for diving.
We've been given the all-clear for the weather.
The visibility looks good,
we can see, when the waves come over, they're quite clear
and it's not too rocky. We're hoping the sun's going to come out.
It's a whole different pace today, we're really moving fast.
Pre-flight. Air in the tyres, air in the pontoons.
Make sure your pull-out rope is set right, which it is.
Make sure we've got fuel.
Too much fuel. We're good.
Today I woke up, Steve looked me in the eye and goes,
"You're working today. I'm going to work you hard and you're going to see
"what it's like to dredge and you're going to really feel it."
I'm the drill sergeant.
He's also very generously said that, if I get gold, I'm going to keep it.
Bruce said we're going to have fun. I told him if we have fun,
something's wrong cos I don't plan on him having fun.
This is about work, this is not a play day.
This is unlike any diving I've done before.
I have one line for my air coming down from the dredge
and one for hot water, which will be pumping through my wet suit.
Go!
There's a very different feel being here on this makeshift raft
than it is back over there, drinking coffee
and watching everyone go out to sea. This is the real thing.
Start blowing out your nose, break the seal, tilt your head back...
Normally, the divers go down alone but, as I'm new to this type of diving,
Spencer, who's a fully trained instructor, wants to watch over me.
I'm going to roll off the front,
come around and help you a bit more.
It's not very deep...
but...well, a lot of things could go wrong.
So, you know, I'm having to deal with that.
But we'll be all right.
It's cold and I'm glad of that hot water pumping through my wetsuit.
It's hard physical work and I have to take care
not to hoover up any wildlife.
Even in this murky water, it's possible to see glimpses of gold.
I work as hard as I can
and wonder how much gold is settling into my sluice box on the surface.
After I've been down for almost an hour,
Spencer decides to call it a day.
Whoa!
HE LAUGHS
Oh, my God!
You were really lucky. It just so happened you were in good gold.
That's why you were dredging under the tailings. It was really visible, you know.
I didn't realise how clear it was going to be.
I know I had a torch, because Spencer was right next to me,
but you can really see that stuff, it's shining away.
You're being swayed around quite a lot
and then I found my nozzle and then it was, like,
no-one's going to tell me nothing, I've just got to get on with this.
So just stuffed the nozzle in the ground and started moving rocks around
and I just got the hang of it when I was down there. It's an adventure. It really is.
There you go. Look at that. Yeah, just here. I've watched you guys do this but this one's mine.
This is yours. Yes, so I'm really watching.
You're like, "Be very careful. Don't spill that, don't spill that at all."
That's right. OK, so we can roll that up.
That's my silt and muck, but somewhere
there's some gold in there and that's my pay.
Thank you, mate. Amazing.
We've got a lot of work to do yet but, obviously, in my mind
I'm just thinking, "What's in that bucket?"
OK, let's see... Bring that bucket, let's look here.
We've just got to get the rest of this dirt off that yellow stuff.
We shouldn't get our hopes too high in what you did
cos you don't have experience.
Can you see any? Not really.
I don't see any. Not yet.
Want me to hold it? No, I want you to do it.
Really? You've had your training,
you watched me. Go for it.
If you do it wrong, you pour out the gold.
But this is much harder than people think.
Isn't it ever? Let a wave come in and out.
OK. Gentle wave,
and they have to be uniform.
I've got bits of gold coming out.
No, you don't. OK.
Those are just shiny things.
Can you imagine doing a lot of it?
My hand's hurting already, yeah.
I think you're going to have more gold than I thought you would.
It looks to me like Bruce did a damn sight better than I thought.
Now you're regretting giving me anything at all. No, I'm extremely happy.
You've got 4.1 pennyweight, you've found $200 worth of gold.
Is that right?
The only real reason I got anything at all
is cos you threw me in that amazing spot
and you gave me all your expertise and your family's support
and all of the contraptions that are out there.
This is yours.
You own this.
Congratulations. You did a great job.
Really, I'm... You really did great.
Steve, you are a gentleman.
How about that? How about that?
200 bucks for an hour's work with my, er...
You earned your gold. ..with my mentor here in the gold-digging business.
I've... I've enjoyed... looking for gold,
but I do enjoy passionate people,
and I've never met more passionate people
than guys who are willing to come up here for months at a time,
in pretty treacherous circumstances,
and go out there and essentially risk their lives for something
that isn't anything they need financially,
but it's something they enjoy doing, and that has been infectious.
It's been such an amazing experience for me to come here,
live with you and your family and friends,
and see your eyes twinkling with
all of that shiny stuff out there.
Thank you. And enjoy the rest of your time up here.
Stay well, man.
Like the fishermen I met down south,
Steve and the other prospectors come to Alaska to exploit the natural world.
But where I'm going next,
the people have a very different relationship with their environment.
I'm on my way north to meet some of Alaska's original inhabitants,
the Inupiak, an Inuit group like those I lived with in Greenland.
This will be the most difficult part of my journey.
The Inupiak hunt whales and,
though this is highly controversial,
they are fiercely proud of their ancient tradition.
I'm heading across the Arctic Circle to the village of Kaktovik,
on the very edge of the North American continent,
within
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
I've come to witness the Inupiaks' annual whale hunt,
to understand what it means to them,
and why they are so determined to continue.
I'm a little bit worried about going into Kaktovik,
especially at this time of year, because the people there are fed up
with foreigners coming in
and passing judgment on what they've been doing for thousands of years.
I've no idea what my reception will be like,
but I know some sections of the community simply just don't want me there.
The people here lived in isolation for thousands of years
until the arrival of traders and missionaries,
who converted them to Christianity
and forced them to change much of their culture.
This tiny, inaccessible village is home to around 300 people
and is established on the annual migration route of the bowhead whale,
which has fed the Inupiak for almost 5,000 years.
My first impressions are of a bleak, isolated place,
and I don't feel very welcome.
DOGS BARK
I don't think I've ever been so out on a limb on arrival in a community.
I've hardly met anyone and I'm not living with a family.
I'm in the local guesthouse.
I'm told that I shouldn't really even be wandering around cos the
place is teeming with wildlife,
especially, right now, the polar bears.
And I know that there's all sorts of activity
going on throughout the community.
It's the beginning of their annual whaling season
and tomorrow is their first hunt of the year,
and so people are sharpening
harpoons, collecting the explosives
in preparation for this big day tomorrow, but I'm not privy to
any of it.
Whale-hunting was banned in the late '70s
by the International Whaling Commission, but when it was
established that
the bowhead population was healthy,
the indigenous people were allowed to resume hunting a limited number.
This year, Kaktovik can take three.
It's a highly emotive subject and they are suspicious of outsiders.
Conditions out at sea are no good for hunting today,
so I get a chance to make friends before the whaling begins.
I've arranged to meet the Rexford family at their home.
Eddie works as a guide for the small number of tourists that come here
and, as such, is more open to meeting outsiders.
Is this Marie? Yes, that's my wife, Marie.
How are you doing? Hello. Good.
I'm Bruce. Marie. Lovely. Don't worry about me,
I'm used to getting nice and mucky. I don't mind.
OK, so this is the baleen? Yeah. So why are you cleaning this up?
We try to supplement our income making native crafts.
Right.
'The baleen comes from inside the whale's mouth
'and is used for etching traditional scenes.'
Try to get it as clean as possible, get all the smelly stuff,
the oil, off of it.
And this is from last year, is it? Yeah.
And how many boats will be going out this time, do you think?
I think six. Five.
Five or six.
'It's immediately made very clear to me
'that filming the whale hunt itself is not allowed in Inupiak culture.'
Kind of the feeling is, um... the whaling part's not...
you know, nobody's allowed to go out for commercial purposes to film.
The film crews in the past, we don't know where they come from
and what they're going to use the film for.
Sure. Some have different agendas,
and, er, sometimes, they make the community feel misrepresented.
That's why there's reluctance on some people here
to film some of the stuff.
The Inupiak believe that the whale gives itself to the hunter voluntarily,
but only if they treat it with respect and are properly prepared.
Though Eddie isn't whaling this year,
he will still receive a share of the harvest.
That's a real Aladdin's cave. Shall I join you, Eddie?
'Before whaling starts, Eddie has to clean out
'the family ice cellar to prepare it for the arrival of the whale.'
Did you help make this?
Yes, I helped my father.
It's all done by hand. Yeah, I bet.
Ice-pick and shovels.
So we're right in the permafrost
here. Even in the hottest day in the summer, this will always be frozen?
Yep, right. What can I do to help clean this place out, Eddie?
You probably just need to move some of this meat.
This big caribou and these legs?
We can move them, yep. Yeah, yeah, OK.
So, tell me, why do we need to clean up the cellar?
We've been taught that the whales
want to come to a clean cellar.
The whales want to come to a clean cellar?
Yeah. What do you mean by that?
Well, we have this relationship with the whales
where...they want to be...
harvested by a person who is, you know, not lazy,
and has a clean cellar, and that's part of how we were taught.
They already know what people are planning,
because of that connection we have. Really? We don't actually decide
who catches the whale.
It's the whale who decides.
The whale decides? Yep. OK.
While we're waiting for the whale hunt to begin,
Eddie takes me for a walk
along the beach outside the village,
where some other visitors are also waiting for the whale to come in.
Quite a size, that one.
Is that medium or large?
That's large. It looks pretty big.
Mm-hm.
What d'you reckon?
I think he'd probably have me.
Each year, large numbers of polar bears gather here
for the leftovers from the whale hunt.
They're hungry after their epic 150-mile swim from the Arctic ice pack,
which is getting further away every year.
They're curious, for one thing.
Their nature is not to go after people and attack.
They just want to rest and recuperate after their swim.
And, er, as you can see, they're just sniffing in the wind,
trying to figure out what we are and if we're a threat to them or not.
They're stunningly beautiful animals.
Just really get a sense of its majesty.
To be this close is really, really amazing.
But you don't want to be much closer!
So, Eddie and Bruce are leading me away gently.
Just kind of keep our distance, show our respects.
One of the cubs has seen us
and is making his way over for a closer look.
We don't have any handouts for you! No.
Don't particularly want the cub too close, cos that's...
when Mum starts taking more of an interest than she has so far.
Off you go. Shoo-shoo-shoo!
It's about ten yards away, that cub, and coming closer, so...
Oi! Off you go.
Off you go. Tch-tch-tch!
Off you go. Tch-tch!
Amazing-looking thing.
But we need to be...
We just don't want you here, really. Off you go. Tch-tch!
He's curious, huh? Really curious.
Amazing, but really, you should be going home to your mummy.
You'd better get back to your mom. Better go home.
Go see your mom. We have nothing for you.
Hey? Nothing for you.
But it's beautiful to meet you, but please go back to your mum.
Get back. Get back. Go back.
Go back. Get back.
OK. Thank you.
What an experience.
That's amazing. My first ever encounter with a polar bear
was much closer than I thought it was ever going to be!
Wow! That was very special.
The bears know that the whale is coming,
and have built up that knowledge
over generations.
Like the Inupiak, they too are waiting for the harvest
that will sustain them into the winter.
The whale hunt is organised by five whaling captains.
At first, none of them would speak to me,
but after a week of trying, I get a breakthrough.
Eddie's wife, Marie, has arranged for me to have dinner
with her cousin, James Lampie, the youngest of the five captains.
I see a little bit of Elvis paraphernalia...
Oh, yeah, Elvis... Is that you?
Is that you? Yeah, definitely.
Really? Yeah...
'The Lampies are native Inupiak,
but they're also modern-day Americans,
'with all the trappings of the consumer world.'
I didn't see that! You really are an Elvis fan!
'Alongside James is his wife, Glenda, and their extended family,
'who've all come together for the meal.'
Wow.
Is this, um...whale?
Caribou. Caribou.
THEY SAY GRACE QUIETLY
I've got the biggest plate of all. I'm feeling suddenly very greedy.
What's it like here in the middle of the winter?
Windy! You feel isolated,
everything as far as you can see is just...
White. It being 65, 70 below. It's bone-chilling.
James has been a whaling captain for three years now,
but has yet to catch his first whale.
This was given to me from my father...
when he passed his captainship to me.
It was made by a gentleman
in Wasilla.
I never used it before. I don't think I will use it to cut, but probably,
after I catch my first whale, I'll probably make a cut with it
and then put it back. After your first whale, you'll think...
Cos this is what they use for...
Yeah.
..for slicing it up.
Well, this is more for show-and-tell, you know.
Symbolic. But your dad gave that to you when he handed over his captaincy to you.
Yes, he did. Wow, what a lovely thing.
After what's been an incredibly tricky week,
I've just been given the amazing
news that he is happy for us to come
and have breakfast with him tomorrow morning,
because tomorrow, they're out on their first hunt of the year.
We all woke up to this.
The wind has died down, the waves have died down. It's actually warm,
and today is the first day that they're all going to be going out.
Even though we have permission to be here from the captain,
some people are clearly unhappy about us filming.
No...
Morning. Hello, good morning.
Is this a special occasion,
the morning of the hunt, always?
Yeah. Make sure everyone gets a good full breakfast
before they go out hunting. Sure. Today is a great day.
We've been waiting for a week now to get out.
The whale is killed by an explosive charge
which detonates inside its body.
It has a little trigger in here. Yes.
And then it fires the little cap
that's in there, and it burns a fuse,
and it gives you so many seconds
to drive away before it actually explodes.
And that will shatter inside it?
Yeah.
OK. And that's essentially the killing blow?
Yep.
How does all this compare to how your ancestors did it, James?
They hunted in skin boats, you know, with no motor or nothing.
And most of the time, they hunted
with a lance and they didn't have...
Explosives? Yeah.
Yeah, they just had a harpoon and a gun, that's it.
What sort of a gun would they have had?
If you go in there, it's in there and I can show you.
Weighs a ton.
Oh! Yeah.
Wow! And then the harpoon will go in here, so it's firing a harpoon?
You always put it in this way. 'If the gun isn't cleaned properly,
'it can explode.
'Five years ago, James's father had an accident 12 miles out at sea.'
He still had it in his hand,
and this part, this whole thing blew up on his hand.
I'm just telling them about your hand, Dad.
What? I was just telling them about your hand, how you lost your hand.
That's how I lose the hand. That was in a whaling accident?
Yeah. My...
When it exploded, this barrel here...
tipped over this way,
and took my whole hand away.
There's a strange quietness in the air,
as the crew wish each other good luck for the hunt.
Good luck. Yeah.
CHUCKLING
There's a real buzz in the whole of this family,
and I know that this is just one of a number of families
that are getting their boats ready today. And pretty soon, we're going to be launching.
All five boats now have left and all I can do is go into
the community,
meet up with some of the people that I've made friends with
and wait with them for the radio to say we've now had a kill.
James's wife, Glenda, is a nurse at the local clinic.
There are strict taboos surrounding the hunt,
like when you're listening to the radio,
you have to keep quiet out of respect for the whale.
We're pretty much taught from when we're little that you can't talk
about it,
otherwise, they won't have good luck out on the water,
that it could cause problems.
And so even when you know that they're talking to each other
and someone's harpooned it, but it's not dead yet,
still, even though, obviously, inside you feel a sense of excitement...
We'll go up to each other and go like this, or something, but you
can't...
You're not supposed to get excited... You're not supposed to guess. Yeah, make guesses.
So we just basically listen and wait for hearing a prayer,
and when we hear a prayer, that's when everybody gets excited.
After eight hours out at sea, the whalers return.
How was it out there? Rough.
Rough? Really rough?
Did you see anything at all? No.
Nothing? Not one? Not even a blow? No.
Next morning, the five whaling boats head out once again.
There they go. The conditions are perfect today
and the whole village waits in anticipation.
A few hours later, the radio crackles into life.
TRANSLATION:
Amen.
CHEERING
CHEERING CONTINUES
Where's the whale? Right there.
My first view of the whale itself.
And the crowd here is ecstatic, you can tell.
They're all really, really enjoying the moment
with the boatsmen as they come in.
And it's...it's emotional for me.
Um... It's emotional.
There's a real sense of community.
It's hard for me to join in that excitement,
but at the same time, I can really feel it all around me.
I can only imagine what, in days gone by, this must have been like,
and that's what I'm feeling today.
I'm feeling that history and heritage.
And in many ways, still now,
even though it's a first-world, modern community,
this represents a huge supply of important meat, protein,
for difficult months ahead.
Although James didn't get his first whale,
all the captains worked together
to tow it in.
James... How are you, my friend? Good, good. How are you?
Yeah, really well, thanks. How was it out there?
It was kind of foggy, but we found an opening and...there you are.
Can you point out to me, where's the harpoon...?
Er, looks like...
Is it...? Is this one? Yep, that's one.
Really? So it's very small. Uh-huh.
OK.
'When it's time to start cutting up the whale,
'we're told to back off, as the captains don't want the images to be shown.'
No pictures.
CAMERAMAN: Can I do it from here? No. Up there.
Turn it off. OK. All right, all right.
There's a lot of people down there.
At the moment, we're not allowed to film, but they've got long knives and they're chopping the whale up.
Huge slabs, they're slicing through,
then hooks pulling that aside as they slice the blubber,
then that's being dragged up here,
then people are chopping it into ever-smaller pieces,
then it finally ends up in the pot where it's being boiled up,
stuck on plates and fed back out to the people who are doing the work.
It's like one big caterpillar track.
It tastes like beef stew. It doesn't taste like beef stew! Try a bite.
Wow... It does taste like beef stew.
Eskimo beef stew, man. Pretty good.
Yep, just missing the vegetables.
The whale provides much more than just food.
It brings the community together and reinforces the Inupiak cultural identity.
Today, it seems the culture is undergoing a revival,
after a long period of being
repressed by successive governments.
Growing up in school, we couldn't speak our language.
If we did, we got punished for it.
Did you experience that yourself? Excuse me? Did you experience that yourself?
Yeah, sure did. In living memory? Tell me about that.
Well, you know, when the missionaries came,
they made schools and, er, we couldn't...
When we came in, we had to learn how to speak their language
and only their language. English.
Yeah. And if we didn't, we got a yardstick slapped on our hand.
The cutting-up continues long into the evening.
One of the last parts to be removed is the tail,
which is traditionally given to the successful captain.
Today, that's George Kaleak.
It's a blessing, from the Almighty above,
and we celebrate life, and we celebrate our culture in that way.
That's what we live for.
It's what we look forward to each and every year,
and it's what we teach our children.
Lots of people around the world have opinions about whaling, George.
What do you think of others coming in here
and having opinions of what you've always done?
Well, they have their opinions and we have ours, you know.
It's subsistence.
We don't commercial hunt.
If they want to try to stop us from whaling, we're going to fight,
to make sure that it's passed on to our younger generation.
It's been about an hour since I was down here,
and last time I was here, there was a huge carcass.
But now, there's almost nothing left.
The jawbone
and a little bit of what looks like vertebrae,
and this is what will get delivered to the bears.
The sun's setting on what's been
the most powerful of days
for the whole community and myself.
It really is such an important part of their history and culture,
but also, it's an important part of their lives today.
They do still rely on this meat.
The next morning,
on a hill near the edge of town,
the meat is shared out equally amongst the five whaling captains.
James's share will be divided amongst his crew and their extended families.
It's this sharing relationship that binds the whole village together.
After so many years of being judged and oppressed,
they're desperate to preserve what remains of their culture.
On my last night in Kaktovik, we head out to the bone pile,
where a small crowd of Inupiak are watching the bears
enjoying their long-awaited feast.
A lot of the families, I've noticed, come down here.
It's like coming to a safari park.
Is it something that you all enjoy in the village?
It's a fun thing to come and watch them.
You never know what you're going to see.
The Inupiak people have a unique relationship with their Arctic neighbours,
and they're happy to share their harvest with them.
Oh, my God!
They're right here.
As the Arctic changes, it seems that much of the world
cares more about polar bears
and whales than this living culture.
I wonder what the future holds for the whalers of Kaktovik.
Finally, it's time for me to leave.
James...
I appreciate everything you did, and your interest in our people.
Did you do this yourself? Right after you guys left my house.
Is that right? Last night? Yeah. Yeah.
James, thank you so much. You're welcome.
That's a real personal touch that means a great deal to me.
Enjoy the rest of your journey. Thanks. Stay well, man. Stay well.
Marie. It was a pleasure.
Thank you so much for coming.
If I think about my own life,
if I think about the fisheries that I saw in the south of Alaska,
if I think about... the burgers and chips I've been eating in the canteen all week,
if I think about most people's relationship with the food that they eat,
there's not much respect.
But here, in this... this land of the north,
where people are carrying out something they've carried out
for so many years,
the rest of the world has a real problem with it...
It's such an emotive subject and people are so quick to judge,
but what I've experienced here
is people with a real relationship with the environment,
with the natural world and with the food that they put in their mouths.
Next time, I'm in Canada...
That's my first sighting of the famous Porcupine caribou herd.
..and I see what happens to the indigenous people
when the oil industry moves into their territory.
Our white brothers
are going to realise that they can't drink oil or eat money.
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