by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 26/97) - Whale Cove Mayor Jack Angoo and his hunting partner Gerard Maktak were each fined $1,000 last week for wasting walrus.

Information gained from the territorial department of Renewable Resources said the men were fingered last July for killing four walruses north of Chesterfield Inlet.

Department staff said hunters took the tusks but left the carcases behind to rot.

Justice of the Peace Elizabeth Copeland passed sentence last week in Whale Cove.

Speaking in Inuktitut, Copeland told Angoo that since he's a well respected elder in the community he should have known better than to waste the walrus and set a bad example.

Besides the fines, the men were told to give up the tusks but Maktak had already sold his to a buyer down south. Angoo still had his and turned them over to the court.

Resources officers laid the charges and investigated the matter after a concerned Chesterfield Inlet hunter reported the wasted walrus in late July, a Resources official said last week.

He said this is the first time someone in the region has been charged under Renewable Resources Marine Mammals Regulations and convicted by an Inuit justice of the peace for wasting wildlife.