Extremely crude drawing to give an idea of the design. The buoy is a piece of Styrofoam with a hole cut for the harpoon shaft and the rope is wrapped around the harpoon shaft and held tight with a slip knot. Once the Styrofoam creates friction from the whale pulling the knot slips and TaaaaDaaaaa!

He designed this after his harpooner got tangled and pulled in. The guy arched his back underwater forcing himself back to the surface then the quick thinking driver sped between the whale and the harpooner and luckily his prop cut the rope. Crazy story but true.

Just as Ryan explained the buoy is for for holding up the rope. We have a shallow bay here, the average depth is 15 feet and having the buoy on the whale or seal will slow down the animal. Most of the time we will try harpooning first, if not, we will shoot and wound the animal and harpoon when it gets tire or slows down. We follow the kalliaq(swirls) in deeper water. Kavluunaqs(wake), are present when the animal is in shallow water. If we are going to hunt in deeper water like Shaktoolik or Elim people, we would have thirty to seventy feet of line on our harpoons. We prefer to get them in shallow water for ease of hunting and retrieving. The small harpoon is 5 and a half feet long, the longer one is a little over six feet. The type of harpoon drawn by Ryan is used around here too, we call them kavluunaqsuun. Just a way of saying to throw at the kavluunaq(wake). Most people like them because they are easy to make. The ones I have posted up are called naliq/unnuaq. They are used mainly for beluga and walrus, or giant bearded seals. Many don't have the naliq because they need to maintain the harpoon. The twine on the toggle will get loose every year or so and will need to be changed or retightened. I got two spotted seals with the bigger harpoon this fall, and have taken many seals with the smaller one, also one beluga. I have a throwing board and seal darts as well. I will bring them in and take pictures sometime. I got a seal with the throwing board last year. Anyways, I took some pictures of the whale and seal hook.


Here are the two hooks. The bigger one we use for whales, my dad bought it from the south or southcentral area. They use them for retrieving their crab pots. We found a use for whales for it. The little older one is home made from a snowmobile shock and steel rods. The bushing tube is where we run a line of lead through to add weight to help hooking the animals better.

Very interesting. I assume that no one attaches the line to a boat.

I would have liked to go for a Nantucket sleigh ride AV

I shot my seal laying on the beach Fool. So I did not need the hook but I will make one for next year. Be good for dragging for sunk Beaver. Maybe I will try and make one.

Indeed!

av-No lines attaching to boats, the whale would just break the line or tug the harpoon tip out. The harpoon is a marker for hunting and retrieving the animal. I don't hunt the bigger whales, like bow head. Our bay is too shallow for them to come in.
m411-I haven't tried using them for beaver yet. Might be possible but, we need to have the line at a low angle in the water when pulling, not up at 90 degrees. May be able to use a tremble hook and attach it to a long stick.

First snow of the year last night. Woke up to about 2" of the wet, heavy.

Yup had pictures of two excited grand kids playing in the snow on my phone before 8 am this morning guess they played out in it all day long

Yeah, snowed most of the day. Wound up with 4-5 inches, at my place.

we got ice now, not thick, a few open spots, no snow though. Here is a trout I got from Mukluktulik. Used a rod and reel and cast into open spots in the ice from the bank.

Woke up to a beautiful morning of snow and had this girl and calf right off the back porch. Hope the white stuff sticks around..........20 more days.

That would be an easy packing job if she didn't have the baby. You could keep the window open and listen to the game while you skin and cut her up!

They were lined up for a double shot too. That calf would have made some tender cooking meat, not to mention several bowls of pemmican. The cow would have made a months worth of dry meat. Good moose hide too stretch it out on a frame right where it fell and let the ravens clean the hide for you. all winter. Ready for the tanner in June make dancing moccasins' in the fall.

Not much hunting going on after the fall migration came down the pass heading south a few weeks ago. It was 2 weeks of caribou hunting and filling up the freezers, caribou meat does not last long in this household. Ive been busy with the Dremel the last week working on this piece here and there in between work and my honeydoo list. The ruff looking part is made of ram horn, and the face is carved from moose antler. Ill post better pics of the final product after I get off of work tomorrow.

I finally made it to AFN yesterday here in Fairbanks.

Got to see AkNative and Otterman from T-man, and a bunch of other friends from all over this great State!

So nice to be able to visit with so many folks.

Pete

Sweet carving Nunamiut!
Thanks for stopping by Pete!

awesome carving

Was good to see you Pete. We had a good time in Fairbanks but sure were glad to get home

My trapping partner this year...we are looking for mink. When she was born, I sewed her up a baby blanket with six mink I had previously trapped. Like everything else, she outgrew it...


-Destruction Bay, after dominating the Alaska Highway in a car seat.



Out scouting last week. ErgoBaby line 2016-2017