We had a chance to spend some time with Joe Leavitt and his wife in New Bedford last Fall. He, as a Native subsistence whaler in Barrow Alaska, expressed the importance of this activity
for the healthy maintenance of his culture in that part of the world, and felt that if they were forced to discontinue it would lead quickly to the destruction of whatever cultural continuity they have been able to maintain.
They were participants in New Bedford's Working Waterfront Festival, which is quickly becoming the most important and relevant of all the Maritime related events.