Inupiat whalers wait by the sea ice edge near Barrow, Alaska. When a bowhead approaches, they will slip their seal skin umiaq into the water, anticipating where the whale will surface. According to the Principles for the Conduct of Research in the Arctic, a set of interagency guidelines, adopted under the leadership of NSF, Arctic peoples ar epartners in research. As experts of survival in the North, indigenous elders have already helped scientists understand, for example, how the beaver population can affect whale migration patterns.

Photo by: Henry Huntington