by Cheryl Leschasin
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 15/97) - Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. is taking the Department of Fisheries and Oceans back to court for not complying with a court order to consult with Inuit authorities when setting turbot quotas in Davis Strait.

The decision came Wednesday in a conference call among NTI representatives, after the department continued to ignore advice from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board over turbot fishing quotas despite consultation provisions in the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement.

"We will actually be in two courts on the turbot matter," said NTI legal counsel Laurie Pelly.

First, Fisheries and Oceans appealed a July 14 judgment by Federal Court Judge Douglas Campbell, who outlined the department's responsibility to act in co-operation with the wildlife board.

NTI has already filed the necessary court documents to oppose the appeal.

In addition, NTI is opposing the second decision by Fisheries Minister David Anderson on turbot quotas, a decision that reduced the maximum Davis Strait catch from 6,600 tonnes to 5,500 tonnes, but ignored other recommendations made by wildlife board.

"The reconsideration of turbot allocation is still unsatisfactory to NTI," said Pelly.

NTI planned to file court documents to set the matter in motion by Monday.

According to NTI, the minister's second decision goes against the principles of conservation, because they will allow the harvest to be greater than the recommended safe level of 5,500 tonnes in the Davis Strait.

In notices to fishers in the Davis Strait, the allocations, including what has been harvested to date, add up to 5,867 tonnes -- 367 tonnes over the recommended limit.

The wildlife board recommended that the Canadian quota in Davis Strait be lowered to 5,500 tonnes and that the share of the quota going to Nunavut fishers should rise to 50 percent, or 2,750 tonnes, in 1997 and to 80 percent by 1999. It also suggested the department issue two Atlantic groundfish licences to Nunavut fishers.

An allocation of 1,500 metric tonnes is reserved for Nunavut fishers this year -- the same as in 1996. This is 100 tonnes less than the allocation announced on April 7 and only 26 percent of the Canadian quota.

Campbell's July decision also read that the minister's first quota infringed on board's authority to establish harvest levels in the Nunavut settlement area.

"Consultation and consideration must mean more than simply hearing. It must include listening as well," said Campbell in his decision.

The decision also said that Nunavut communities must have priority consideration for licences in offshore waters over any other competing party.

Shortly after Campbell's decision, the board provided Anderson with advice regarding the management of turbot in the Davis Strait area.

On Aug. 6, he said he had reviewed the correspondence, but did not intend to follow up on any recommendations, with the exception of lowering the quota.

Further correspondence between the parties failed to produce a compromise.