Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Ellesmere Island (Apr 24/00) - A recent military patrol on Ellesmere Island -- named Operation Ulu -- failed to prove that Greenlandic hunters are poaching Nunavut's polar bears.

But according to a member of the Iviq Hunters and Trappers Association in Grise Fiord, that doesn't mean the illegal hunting isn't happening.

"It's a known fact," said Marty Kulugutuq, the secretary-treasurer of the organization.

"We know they come over on the Canadian side discreetly. It's like that every year. I'm not sure how many this year, but a few years ago our Renewable Resources person confiscated three bears from one qamutik," he said.

Kulugutuq explained the Greenlandic hunters would travel for days to get to the better hunting grounds located on Canadian territory.

"The grass is greener on this side I guess," he said.

However, the sovereignty patrol conducted earlier this month in Alexandria Fiord -- located 300 kilometres north of Grise Fiord -- by the Department of National Defense, the Canadian Rangers and one RCMP officer, failed to turn up evidence that Greenlandic hunters had been in the area.

"I don't think the ice conditions were good up there this year and maybe (the hunters) were tipped off when these guys were coming," said Kulugutuq.

Lt. Mark Gough, a public affairs officer for DND, explained the military's decision to make public its foray into the High Arctic. He said that while the reports of illegal polar bear hunting in the Alexandria Fiord area were serious enough to warrant investigation, protecting Canada's sovereignty was the primary purpose of the trip. That, he said, led to the decision to announce the patrol.

"We were concerned that people might warn off people in Greenland. That was taken into consideration, but our primary objective was exerting Canadian sovereignty," said Gough.

"We were bringing the Canadian flag up there and putting it in the ground and saying this is part of Canada. You can't do that in secret. You have to tell people about it," he said.

Gough added the trip was also special because of the manner in which it was carried out.

Traditionally conducted by DND officials and Rangers travelling from their communities by snowmobile, Operation Ulu was unique in that the team and its equipment was air-lifted into the site.

"It was the first time we used our air resources to insert the folks into the location we wanted to patrol," said Gough.

"We wanted to extend our area of influence ... go a little further than the Rangers' traditional hunting grounds. The whole purpose was so the Rangers would become familiar in a different area."