RANKIN INLET (DEC 06/96) - The European fur ban has had a deadly impact on the Inuit, according to a recent study released two weeks ago.

Commissioned by the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and written by University of Alberta professor Marc G. Stevenson, "Inuit Suicide and Economic Reality" links the decline of the seal market to the increase in Inuit suicide.

The report notes that from 1971 to 1982 an average of 30,000 seal skins were sold each year in the territories, generating annual revenues often exceeding $500,000.

During the same period there was an average of 4.3 Inuit suicides per year, just slightly above the national average.

Then the bottom dropped out of the market. The European ban begun in 1982 caused prices paid to hunters to plummet from $19.41 to less than $5 a pelt in two years.

NWT production fell proportionately, from over 40,000 pelts in 1980-81 to less than 1,000.

Since 1983 the Inuit suicide rate has more than doubled, and from 1981 to 1991. Violent crime among Inuit increased by 200-per-cent.

To help offset the ban's effects, and to jump start the sealing industry, the territorial government has begun a program that seems to be gathering steam.

Recognizing the importance of sealing in the Arctic, the GNWT Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development (then Renewable Resources) started a program two years ago to revive the sealskin market.

As a result of the effort, the market is just now recovering from the nosedive it took in the 80s, the result of the 1982 European Union ban on the import of sealskin.

There will be 6,000 NWT sealskins on the block this Friday at the North Bay House auction, the largest number seen over the last ten years.

Held twice annually in North Bay, Ont., the auction attracts buyers who will sell to furriers around the globe.

"It's going to be very interesting to see where those skins end up," said department's Kitikmeot regional superintendent John Stevenson.

Renewable Resources paid Inuit hunters $30 for ringed sealskins and $50 for harp sealskins as part of a fur-pricing program introduced last year.

Along with buying the skins, the government is attempting to restore the fur demand that existed before the ban, targeting Asian and east European markets.

Last April, at the last North Bay House auction, NWT pelts sold for an average of $22, a huge vault from the low of $7 paid immediately after the ban.

The fur-pricing program costs the GNWT $300,000 a year, with $150,000 of that assigned to the purchase of seal skins.

Half of the money goes toward promoting sealskin, and seal skin garments, at shows in Russia, Copenhagen, Milan, Hong Kong, Seattle and Montreal.

"Sure it costs us some money," said Stevenson. "But the critical statistic is the number of people who are active because of it. If they didn't have this, what would the cost be on the social side?"

At this time, 400 Inuit sell pelts through the program. The top six communities, in order, are Pangnirtung, Broughton Island, Igloolik, Holman and Kugluktuk.