by Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 15/97) - Financially and logistically, selling muskox meat can be a hairy experience.

But the latest attempt to get the Northern meat to market is poised to at least break even.

Patrick Schmidt, heading up the muskox harvest for the Sachs Harbour Hunters and Trappers Committee, said about 1,250 animals were taken over a two-month period on Banks Island.

"We had hoped for 2,000," he said.

A series of blizzards and a few wolves that chased some animals away prevented a larger harvest. Blizzards made it difficult to feed some of the animals who subsequently had to be let go.

The Banks Island muskox population is estimated at around 90,000 with an eight to 10 per cent annual growth rate.

Despite these glitches, it was "the second biggest harvest ever on Banks Island," Schmidt said.

"We've presold all the product," Schmidt said.

The NWT Development Corporation has bought some of the leather, he added. The Crown corporation did not bid on the meat.

There has not been a harvest on Banks Island in three years.

The two-month effort yielded about 90,000 kilograms of meat and employed about 45 people -- about one-third of the community.

Originally, based on 2,000 animals, Schmidt estimated the harvest would generate $700,000 in regional benefits.

Meat will now be flown to Inuvik, then trucked south.

"Shipping is a huge hurdle," he said.

"There is a market if you can deliver the product at the right price," he said.

Much of the meat will end up in Asia, Hills Meats Ltd. president Mark Hills said.

Vancouver-based Hill, a buyer of the Sachs Harbour muskox meat, said it's a tough sell.

"So little is sold outside the country. We buy with an interest in selling it to the local restaurants," he said.

"We hope to be offering it to restaurants by mid-January."

Muskox meat is not easy to find at the retail level but Hill estimated it sells for anywhere from $3 a pound to $25 a pound for prime cuts.

Hills Meats sells about $3 million worth of game meat yearly and has 60 employees.

Despite early indications of success at Sachs Harbour, the same cannot be said in Cambridge Bay, where the November harvest was cancelled.

Muskoxen are usually harvested two times a year around Cambridge Bay.

Ekalututiak Hunters and Trappers Organization secretary manager Ikey Evalik said the community is hoping for a muskox harvest in the spring.

"They (the NWT Development Corporation) indicated it was not economically feasible," Evalik said.

The November harvest would have employed about 20 people for up to 20 days.

This was the first cancellation since 1992, he said.

Schmidt said he wants to see the Cambridge Bay harvest succeed because it means more product on the market. More product means more exposure and more exposure should mean more demand, he said.