Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 09/06) - Aboriginal hunters say they may accept harvest quotas on caribou but not without consultation first.

Michael Miltenberger, minister of Environment and Natural Resources, is expected to make an announcement sometime next month that may include recommendations that could see harvest quotas imposed on aboriginal hunters for the first time due to falling caribou populations.

Students from P.W. Kaeser high school in Fort Smith harvest caribou last spring. The government is considering a quota for aboriginal harvesters due to declining herd numbers. - NNSL file photo

He is also expected to reduce the yearly non-aboriginal resident bag limit for caribou down from its current number of five, and restrict hunting on winter roads.

Joseph Arey, a member of the Inuvik Hunters and Trappers Committee, said if a quota is necessary to protect caribou then that's what the government ought to do.

"There's going to be a lot of mad people," said Arey. "If we have to, then we have to, but they have to do consultation with the (hunters and trappers committees) before they go to the minister."

A census last fall found that the Bluenose West herd had dropped to 20,800 animals from 74,300. The Cape Bathurst were down to 2,400 from 10,000, and the Bluenose East were down to 66,600 from 104,000.

Three years ago, another census found that one of the NWT's largest herds, the Bathurst, was down to 186,000 from 350,000 in 1996.

The numbers prompted one wildlife official to call current hunting practices "unsustainable."

Eddie Dillon of Tuktoyaktuk, like Arey, said he will accept a quota if one is recommended by the hunters and trappers committees, but added he's frustrated because there is so much confusion over the naming of herds.

He questions whether some herds, such as the Cape Bathurst, are really any different from others.

"We've got no back-up to rely on from our side," said Dillon. "It's confusing."

Miltenberger said this year's plans will include a comprehensive survey of all the caribou herds of the NWT, including those already surveyed last year, and the Porcupine, Bathurst, Ahaik and Beverly.

The government also plans to research numbers of caribou predators such as wolves and grizzly bears and survey hunters.

"I don't want to wait, nobody does," said Miltenberger.

"As the stewards of the land we have to be seen to be taking the right steps."

Edward Gardebios, an elder from Fort Good Hope, said he doesn't believe a quota on the aboriginal hunt is necessary.

"We don't go down to the farm and tell them to just kill two cows a year," said Gardebios.

"I think that's what they want. They want us to buy more frozen meat."