Hunters on thin ice
Changing climactic conditions making it harder to reach traditional grounds
Myles Dolphin
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 17, 2014
PANNIQTUUQ/PANGNIRTUNG
The impacts of climate change in Pangnirtung are becoming more and more evident, as hunters in the community are having a harder time of reaching their traditional grounds.
Seal hunters Joseph Qamanirq, left, and right Teema Palluq, wait for a seal to appear on Victor Bay in October 2009. Hunters in Pangnirtung are finding it more difficult to reach their traditional grounds because of changing ice conditions. - photo courtesy of Niore Iqalukjuak |
Pangnirtung MLA Johnny Mike, a longtime hunter and fisherman, brought the issue up in his member's statement in the legislature on March 6.
"We are also finding that our old hunting grounds are no longer accessible, which our ancestors used and occupied, due to the changing ice conditions," he told his colleagues.
"The people of Pangnirtung, like their fellow Inuit, tend to hunt when the ice has formed and when the ice is at its thickest, as this is the best time to hunt and this is part of their cultural traditions.
"The area I refer to used to be reached when the ice formed, but current conditions are such that the sea isn't icing up, but remaining open and creating a barrier to our hunters to reach that traditional area."
As a result, hunters are forced to use an overland route as opposed to traditional, safer ones.
"The lands around Pangnirtung are quite rugged and we have no lowlands," he added.
"Due to the rugged terrain, the hunters, fishermen, trappers, or even people who just go out to be on the land need to have proper access routes to these areas. They require access that isn't complex or dangerous."
Brian Proctor, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Pangnirtung has gone through an unseasonably warm winter this year, which is responsible for the conditions hunters are facing.
"Of interest, from the preliminary precipitation data available, is November numbers are 25 to 30 per cent normal for that month," he said.
"The snow pack wasn't great going into wintertime. December was a significantly colder month - eight degrees colder than normal - but precipitation was very much below normal, maybe 10 per cent of normal."
Proctor said the polar vortex - a large pocket of cold air that typically sits in the Northern Hemisphere - strengthened and moved southwest this winter, towards Ontario and Manitoba, meaning warm air could flood up the East Coast of North America.
"It did penetrate as far as Baffin Island," he said.
"The Arctic vortex dropped south from its normal position and allowed that anomalously warm air to flood up to Baffin. There has been very little snowfall and what is left is sublimated very quickly because of the relatively warm weather."
Proctor said the mean temperature in Pangnirtung in January was -18.7 C, whereas the long-term normal is -26.3 C.
The pattern persisted into February, as a cold dry became a warm dry, Proctor said.
The mean temperature for the month was -23.3 C, compared to the long-term normal of -29 C.
Precipitation levels were around 25 per cent of normal, he added.
