September 4, 2020 — When James Judkins began pulling up his fishing nets out near Point Barrow this month, the weight of the catch pulled back at him.
“Man, this is a really big fish,” Judkins thought. Then, he glimpsed the dorsal fin. Then another. “Dolphins?” he wondered.
Close. Harbor porpoises, a marine mammal resembling dolphins, but in the same family as whales, have made several appearances in Utqiaġvik recently.
In recent weeks, local fishermen have caught at least four porpoises in subsistence fishing nets near Point Barrow. Judkins recovered two, along with a seal, on Aug. 12 in Elson Lagoon. The other two were bycatches in Christian Stein and Charlie Sikvaguyak’s separate nets set in the same area. For some fishermen, it was their first time seeing the mammal.