Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 14/98) - While most Northerners wait for BHP to pull diamonds from the Ekati mine next month, Whale Cove residents are preoccupied with a retrieving a different kind of treasure, lying in the depths of Hudson Bay.

Scallops, starfish, seaweed, sea cucumbers, sea urchin and even soapstone have been found in the water near the Keewatin community and some hope it's only a matter of time before the money starts rolling in.

"Everybody's talking about diamonds and mining. I think the sea has it's own diamonds," said Whale Cove's Ian Copland of Kivalliq Land and Resources last week.

Last month, Kivalliq Land and Sea Resources coordinated a training course instructed by Yellowknife's Arctic Divers Ltd. and had divers go underwater to experiment with a deep sea dive fishery near the community.

"The resource is found offshore quite a ways, but there was some indication from Arctic Divers that perhaps we could look at almost a year-round, at least a eight-month operation, of actually using divers to harvest things like scallops, sea cucumber, sea urchin, that way increase the length of the fishery and the availability of the products," said Copland.

There are plenty of other things at the bottom of the sea that have revenue-making potential as well.

"Star fish in particular. The pharmaceutical industry is extremely interested in star fish and sea cucumbers. The toxins that both those sea animals contain are very promising and have some great potential for cosmetic and pharmaceutical uses," said Copland.

"Also seaweed. We've had that analyzed and we've had some interest both in Great Britain and the U.S. for pharmaceutical and cosmetic uses."

Copland hopes the training course will bring about greater interest in creating a new fishery in the community.

"It's time to bring some new money into the North," said Copland.

The dive training course was put together by Arctic Divers and Kivalliq Land and Sea Resources with $20,000 in financial backing from Education Culture and Employment and $23,000 from Kivalliq Aboriginal Training Fund. Lewis Voisey, owner of the Atlantic Bounty, a 60-foot scallop dragger, dropped his rates to take the men and women out to sea for training.

During the six-week course, students gained sea time, first aid training, scuba diving time and all attended a small business workshop teaching them how to apply for grants and set up a business.

Solomon Junior Voisey, John Angoo, Thomas Angoo and Simona Teenar completed the scuba certification part of the course. Isabelle Sheetoga and Jacobie Tavo both received their skin diving certification.

As a result of the Whale Cove diving course, Arctic Divers have formed a partnership with Kivalliq Land and Sea Resources to supply commercial divers and skills for training with future Inuit diving projects.

It also gives Arctic Divers a better presence in Nunavut, said Jeremy Hamburg, a member of Arctic Divers who helped run the Whale Cove training course.