The U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission is in Alaska for a couple of days to gather public comments from constituents and discuss the tentative U.S. Positions for the upcoming July meeting of the IWC.
"I'm just so glad to be here in Alaska to be able to hear these views and to go visit the communities and to get a first-hand look at all that we work so hard to support back in D.C.," said MonicaMedina, the U.S. Commissioner and NOAA Principal Deputy Under Secretary.
Medina met with a handful of Alaskans at a public meeting in downtown Anchorage, Tuesday afternoon. She planned to then make her way to Barrow to meet with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.
"They're most directly impacted by the work of the International Whaling Commission, and we really enjoy getting to spend time up here, getting to know the people we work with," Medina told Channel 2.
According to Medina, with all the activity and change going on in the Arctic, it is more important than ever to hear from Alaskans about preserving their way of life.
"We want to make sure that our subsistence whalers and the other subsistence whalers around the world are able to continue to take the whales that they need to in order to feed their communities and feed their way of life," said Medina.
The International Whaling commission will meet in July in the Bailiwick of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands between England and France.
