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Top of the World

Welcome to Barrow, Alaska, where the Iñupiat people rely on the annual migration of bowhead whales to coastal waters for food and for sustaining long-standing cultural traditions. Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States, sits north of the Bering Strait, where water flowing between Siberia and Alaska curls into the Arctic Ocean. WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian and colleagues have been investigating the delicately balanced ecosystem off Alaska to see how changes in currents and climate are affecting the food web. (Photo by Phil Alatalo, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)