George crumb whale11/16/2023 Craig George, aside from being an amazing friend, musician, songwriter, father, spouse and stellar community member, was one of the first western science biologists, along with Dr. Suzanne Little, who oversees Alaska land conservation for the Pew Charitable Trusts, played in a band with George, and performances included a mid-1980s event in what was then the new Barrow High School. He helped combine thousands of years of traditional local Inupiat knowledge with world class technology and data.” He helped so many people and helped preserve and protect an Inupiat culture that was judged and stereotyped for years by outsiders. It’s been a pleasure working for my hometown borough, and people like Craig were a big part of the reason. “He was kind, gentle, humble, funny, and could teach you something without you even knowing you were in the middle of an academic lesson. Fauske, director of external affairs for the North Slope Borough, wrote on his personal Facebook page about memories from first grade, when he was a student at Ipalook Elementary School and first met George. Tributes to George poured in over social media once news of his accident was released.ĭ.J. The book is titled “Ice Whale” like many of Jean Craighead George’s books, it was partly inspired by her son’s scientific work in Arctic Alaska. He was a musician, and often performed a song he wrote called “Keep on Whaling.” The son of Newbery Award-winning author Jean Craighead George, he and his sister collaborated to complete one of his late mother’s unfinished books after she died. He was a pillar of the Utqiagvik community. George had talents and accomplishments beyond his scientific work. He became known for his collaborative work with Inupiat experts. He was an animal caretaker at the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory before embarking on his long career with the North Slope Borough. He moved to the town then known as Barrow in the 1970s. He published studies on such subjects as increased predation on bowheads by killer whales that can now swim farther north, the way changes in shore ice have affected Inupiat hunting practices, and ways to preserve traditional food cellars that are dug in the warming permafrost. He also studied the myriad ways that reduced sea ice and other climate-change impacts have affected Utqiagvik and the rest of coastal Arctic Alaska. George, 70, spent decades studying bowhead whales and documenting their long-term increases. His body had not been found as of Monday, a trooper spokesperson said. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)Ī veteran Arctic scientist who was one of the world’s most distinguished whale experts was missing after a rafting accident in Interior Alaska last week.Ĭraig George, a retired senior biologist with the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, went missing on Wednesday while rafting the Chulitna River with companions south of Cantwell near Denali National Park, the Alaska State Troopers reported. In past decades, the waters here would have been frozen over by October in 2018, there was no ice within sight. George, who went missing while rafting the Chulitna River last week, devoted much of his research to the effects of sea-ice loss. Biologist Craig George stands on Utqiagvik’s beach on Oct.
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