International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

2006/2007, 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010.
When setting local ice and weather observations,
village monitors were asked, at a minimum, to report
daily temperature, wind direction, wind speed and
the ice condition at each location. They were also
encouraged to add local details they believed were
important, such as data on subsistence activities;
marine mammals, birds and terrestrial species;
community events; and personal travel across the
observation area (Fig. 3.10-10). All village monitors
were also asked to include local terms, place names
and key descriptions in their respective native
languages whenever possible. This resulted in a more
nuanced, contextualized and community-vetted
documentation of indigenous knowledge and the
use of ice. The age of monitors varied from 33 to 84,
with the main group in the 50s and 60s age-group.
Altogether, local SIKU observations in 2006–2009
produced a dataset of more than 150 monthly logs
from nine communities totalling several hundred
pages. It constitutes a unique database of its kind on
local ice and weather conditions on the ground, but
also on subsistence activities, communal life, personal
travelling and the status of environmental knowledge
in several communities during the IPY era.
New and improved knowledge. The project
offered a unique window to learn how indigenous ice
and weather monitoring is organized and to identify
the key parameters of sea ice dynamics as directed
by indigenous hunters. For example, local monitors
identify the ice not only by its age, thickness, type, etc.
(as ice scientists also do), but also by its history during
a particular ice season; how many times it was broken
and refrozen and even by its geographic origin. In the
Bering Strait region, hunters can detect where the
incoming ice has originated, whether it carries game
(or not) and whether it is safe and stable to travel. On
St. Lawrence Island, hunters distinguish four to five
different ‘waves’ of the passing spring ice, according
to their origin, whereas on the scientists’ scale it is just
one single ‘spring break-up’ period.
Hunters also use several ‘proxy’ indicators to judge
Fig. 3.10-9. Two
hunters watch for
seals from the top of
ice pressure ridge.
Gambell, St. Lawrence
Island, Alaska,
February 2008.
(Photo: Igor Krupnik)
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