To catch whales, seals, and walruses, Wainwright's huntsman John Hopson goes to sea. He leaves the cliff area next to the village and continues further away from the coast, where the waves are often rough. Before each trip, Hopson scans the horizon and checks weather apps to make sure he and his crew are safe. Still, circumstances sometimes surprise hunters.
“The sea could be calmer, or it could be rougher. You don't know until you go out. Just go out and find out,” he said.
Last summer, Hopson joined the Backyard Buoys project, which helps coastal indigenous communities collect and use wave data to support marine activities. Like residents of Point Hope, Utchagvik and other locations, Hopson set up several buoys near Wainwright to measure wave heights. That real-time data was available to him and other subsistence hunters through a prototype app.
“This app has really, really, really helped us,” Hopson said. “This saved us a lot of time and effort and probably kept a lot of people safe as we knew it was rougher than it looked.”
Following the success of this initiative in 2023, the project will grow to involve even more Alaska communities this year. The developer plans to release a live version of the Backyard Buoys app in May for another summer that will further enhance wave data collection.
“We look forward to using this program for another year with the hope of including more locations in our hunting areas,” Hopson said. “We look forward to another successful summer and successful ocean boating season this year.”
backyard buoy
In the Backyard Buoy Project, subsistence hunters and fishermen collaborate with scientists and developers to place small buoys in traditional subsistence areas and monitor the wave data they collect. said Shayna Wisdom, director of the Alaska Ocean Observing System, one of the regional systems. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration co-manages this effort.
[Previously: ’The ocean is their garden’: Whalers to measure wave height and direction before going out into the sea]
The project was originally funded by the National Science Foundation from 2021 to 2024, but the Alaska Ocean Observing System now plans to continue for at least three more years, through 2027, with some NOAA funding. Yes, Wisdom said.
The Backyard Buoy Initiative covers three regions: Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and the Pacific Islands.
In the Pacific Northwest, the app serves boaters and fishermen from the Quileute Tribe and Quinault Indian Nation, who live near La Push, Washington, and have been dealing with increasing storm surge.
Partners in the project in the Pacific Islands include the Marshall Islands Conservation Society, American Samoa National Park, Hawaii Sea Grant, and Conservation International Hawaii.Fishing is the main industry in the area survival activities. Additionally, one of the most culturally significant survival events takes place in American Samoa each spring, when villagers from all over the island go to coral reefs at night to harvest palolo, a delicacy of marine insect gametes. said Wisdom.
“The ocean is where they survive and where they have lived for thousands of years, but the ocean is changing and that's making it more difficult to ensure their safety,” Wisdom said. Told. “Using all the tools we have, including indigenous knowledge, stories from elders, and technology like wave buoys, really keeps people safe and allows them to do what they need to do. That’s what it is.”
In Alaska, seven buoys were installed last year at Utchagvik, three at Point Hope, and three at Wainwright. This year, project leaders hope to install a total of 30 buoys and expand to Kaktovik, Diomede, Savonga and Gambel to cover more Alaskan communities. Installation is scheduled for June, once hunters are ready, Wisdom said.
trust the app
At Wainwright last year, Hopson set up three buoys in late July when the sea was ice-free. He placed them two, five, and ten miles from the coast. Although Wainwright was hunting some distance away, he said his goal was to get information that would help him return home.
Hopson said the data was available to members of the Wainwright community who hunted in the area until early October.
“It's a year-round endeavor that includes hunting arcticheads, walruses, beluga whales and caribou, fishing, and trapping geese and woolly ducks,” Hopson said. “Life here is all about survival. You survive year-round to feed your family, crew, and community.”
Hunters often look at various weather apps when preparing for a trip to ensure they stay safe while hunting, and forecasts often predict the weather for the next two to three days and are based on current conditions. Hopson said it doesn't match the circumstances.
“You never know when that wind is going to shift towards you. It can happen in the blink of an eye, so no matter what season you're looking at, you have to be prepared for it,” Hopson said.
So when Hopson installed the Backyard Buoys app, he didn't trust it at first.
“My first thought was, why? Why do we need it?” he said.
Wainwright Village is perched on a high cliff, and when hunters look out to sea, Hopson said, the sea often appears calm. One day he started the app and remembered that the wave height was 5 feet. Hopson didn't think the app was accurate and went out to sea, only to find out the waves were actually high and he needed to turn back. This made him trust the app even more.
“Now I just wake up and open the app. It's real-time, so I can say, 'Oh, I can go boating today,' or, 'Oh, I guess I'll just stay home.' “Even without it,” he said, “it was well received by the hunters here.”
Technology initiatives
Hopson said it's not unusual for Wainwright and other Arctic villages to welcome new technology to keep residents safe. For example, hunters often look at satellite images for ice conditions to see where open bodies of water are located. At Utčagvik, whaling captains and scientists worked together to measure the thickness of the ice and map its trajectory using electromagnetic equipment and satellite imagery.
“We're technology-oriented,” Hopson said. “We are always taking traditional knowledge and holding onto it, while at the same time applying it to technology.”
The Backyard Buoy Project has been a collaboration with Arctic residents since its inception.
The Alaska Marine Observing System reached out to local groups, including the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, before developing the project proposal, said Jenny Evans, the commission's communications director. She said the whaling captains who make up the committee had consulted with village residents to see if there was any interest in having the project implemented in the area. Evans said the captain also helped decide where to place the buoys and how to deploy them.
“The idea behind this whole project was to make it community-led, Indigenous-led,” Mr Evans said. “This project is being developed within the community.”
Evans added that co-production projects don't always follow this path. Agencies often fund projects based on proposals written without input from the community. By the time researchers visit the villages where they want to implement the project, the details of what the project will look like are already solidified, she said.
“That system is broken,” she said. “To really change that and move into a truly collaborative environment, we need to get back to the system and not put the cart before the horse.”
Hopson said residents welcome researchers and developers to come to the area and introduce technology that is beneficial to them and does not interfere with their practices.
“When something like this is introduced, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but once everyone understands its benefits and its true value and can actually use it… it becomes valuable Hunter To us,” he said. “Please come to us with an open mind.”