Daniel T'Seleie
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (July 04/05) - New rules for Iqaluit hunters who harvest beluga include a daily catch limit of two whales per boat.

Members of the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association met last Monday to discuss changes to the community-based management system. The previous management agreement expired in late May, said board member Pitseolak Alainga.

"We had to get an emergency meeting to the public because the beluga hunt is just around the corner," Alainga said.

Hunters have already begun taking whales, around 30 so far this year, Alainga said.

New rules, voted on by Amarok members, include: no more selling muktuk in town; an increase in the minimum calibre of rifle used to hunt whales; and a limit of two whales per day per boat, regardless of the number of hunters in the boat. There is no quota for beluga whales.

Changes to the rules were recommended by hunters and widely supported, Alainga said.

"That was a good thing for our group because a few years ago people weren't listening to what the rules were about whale hunting," Alainga said.

In 2004, Amarok did not report the harvest of about 20 whales to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). There have also been issues with meat wasting when hunters took too many whales and had to leave carcasses behind, Alainga said.

Amarok will draft the new management agreement with the help of the DFO, said Keith Pelley, DFO chief of conservation and protection for Nunavut.

"We just review and assist them as partners," Pelley said.

"The hunters here are not concerned about over-killing," Alainga said.

Pelley agrees there is no "over-harvesting issue," and says the DFO is not concerned about beluga numbers.

Amarok has purchased a citizens band (CB) radio for its office. The radio will be used to communicate with hunters to help keep track of the location and number of whale kills.

"There's a lot of little CB radios out there," Alainga said.

Besides reporting kills, hunters will take skin samples to help DFO determine which of three groups of whales in Nunavut the beluga come from and track whale populations.