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NUNAVUT - With roughly 11,000 sealskins from Nunavut unsold in the annual fur auction in Ontario, Nunavummiut sealers may face tough times ahead.

Mark Downey, CEO of Fur Harvesters Auction Inc., said the demand for sealskins had "softened" and could no longer sustain the current price of $55-60 apiece. The 11,000 unsold skins represent all of 2008's harvest and some left over from 2007.

Syula Bobinski works on a pair of sealskin mitts at Qaqqalik school in Kimmirut in April 2007. The Nunavut Department of Environment hopes to expand on the domestic market for sealskin in response to a drop in international demand. - NNSL file photo

The Department of Environment, which buys sealskins from sealers and sells them for auction, is deciding what to do as the international market for Canadian sealskins dries up.

Qikiqtarjuaq's economic development officer Harry Alookie was not optimistic if the government instructs its conservation officers to lower the price of sealskins they buy in the Nunavut communities.

"I guess the hunters will have to be creative and eventually seek more ways to have food on the table and as well with their gas for their (snow) machines, ammunition and their equipment," Alookie said.

He guessed there are at least 150 full-time hunters in the hamlet of roughly 500. Pretty much everyone else hunts at least part time, including Alookie.

He said people are already absorbing higher prices on everything, stemming from hikes in gasoline prices. He said sealing is an important part of life, since every meal of country food, such as seal meat, is one less meal from the expensive and less healthy supermarket.

"Seal meat is one of the healthiest foods that I've grown up with," he said.

The subsistence nature of sealing in Nunavut has been one of its marketing points, said Downey of Fur Harvesters Auction Inc.

The auction house points out Inuit harvest the seals primarily for food, using the skins within the community first and selling the extras.

Wayne Lynch, director of fisheries and sealing for the Nunavut Department of Environment, said, "I don't know how it's going to be approached. We're going to go to the minister and cabinet to look at the future of that program."

Lynch said much of the drop in sales is due to a ban on seal products in Europe and the general downturn in the world economy. Representatives of the governments of Canada and the three sealing regions including Nunavut have gone to Europe to argue against the ban. There they are joined by representatives from Greenland, an area more heavily involved in the sealskin trade than Nunavut.

To make up for the loss in sales, the Department of Environment is considering possible alternatives to international sales, such as expanding the local market for sealskins or developing a market in other regions such as Asia and Eastern Europe. That is a long-term plan, but Lynch's concern is more immediate.

"The important thing is to support our hunters to keep the industry alive and do what we can to help them," he said.

Fur Harvesters Auction CEO Downey said such a drop in prices are a fact of the fur industry. The price of furs tends to fluctuate because of the nature of the fashion industry: things go in and out of style.

He said four years ago sealskin was in demand for fashions in Russia and Turkey so prices were high. If and when the price of sealskin drops it may encourage designers to experiment with sealskin for a new look, popularity will rise, prices will increase and the cycle will continue, he said.