Photos: Spring bowhead whale hunt

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Wales became an important whaling center due to its location along whale migratory routes, and it was once the region's largest and most prosperous village, with more than 500 residents.

In the U.S., whaling is carried out by several indigenous Alaska communities and managed by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, which reports to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Hunters take about 50 bowhead whales a year from a population of some 10,500 in Alaska waters.

Federal scientists periodically evaluate the number of bowheads Alaska Eskimos can harvest in future annual subsistence hunts. Native hunters from 11 Arctic Alaska communities are legally exempted from federal rules that outlaw hunting of bowhead whales, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

For more than 2,000 years, Eskimos have hunted bowhead whales as they migrate along the Alaska coastline in the spring and fall. Native subsistence hunters take less than 1 percent of the stock of bowhead whales per year, according to NOAA.

Read more about whale hunting in Wales, Alaska.