Kerry McCluskey and James Hrynyshyn
Northern News Services

PANGNIRTUNG (Jul 27/98) - In 1947, Angmalik and Keenainak headed out onto the waters of Cumberland Sound to lead a bowhead whale hunt.

Fifty-one years later, their grandsons, Jaco Evic and Simeonie Keenainak did the same thing.

Whether the hunt itself should have been carried out in the first place, however, is the subject of some debate by some Inuit and scientists.

Following Evic and Keenainak, the 22 other hunters and many of Pangnirtung's residents, headed out into the Sound on July 13 to set up a base camp on the historic whaling site of Kekerten Island.

Because of extremely high winds and rough seas, the hunt party was forced to stay ashore for one week before calm weather set in, permitting the hunt to begin on July 20.

"About 8 p.m., I spotted the whale and set my GPS from the island where I was and kept my eye on it," said Keenainak.

The hunt party joined him soon after and they chased the whale back towards Kekerten Island, where they harpooned it. Keenainak said the whale struggled free but that eventually, they secured to it ropes with floats attached, enabling them to monitor its location.

About one hour later, Keenainak saw the whale resurface and he used an exploding projectile gun to kill the bowhead.

"It was a good shot. I was happy about it," said Keenainak, who had some concerns about the safety of the gun.

The whale was towed back to Kekerten where, surrounded by the singing of traditional Inuit whaling songs, the group hauled the whale onto the shore and spent the next three days butchering it.

Evic said the plan that they used to capture the 13-metre male bowhead was a good one.

"I'm happy to be the captain and I'm happy that nothing went wrong. Years had passed and we caught the bowhead very well," said Evic in Inuktitut, through his daughter Amanda.

He added that hunters who had been involved in the hunt near Repulse Bay in 1996 were on Kekerten Island and felt that the hunt went smoothly.

Just hours before he would go on to the community feast to celebrate the kill, Evic said the efficient manner in which the bowhead was taken should not give animal rights groups cause for concern.

Despite the success however, some groups have pointed out that scientists consider the bowhead whale an endangered species that should not be hunted.

Kerry Finley, a biologist based in B.C. who has spent 14 years studying the bowhead in the region, said there are only a few hundred bowhead left in Eastern Arctic waters, and the herd may be growing by as few as five calves a year. Increased numbers reported by Inuit elders could merely be a result of changing migration routes, he said.

Such low numbers mean hunting a species in such a precarious state makes little sense, said Finley.

"I have a very difficult time with it," he said. "It flagrantly goes against science."

Not all Inuit like the idea of hunting an animal that is listed as an endangered, either.

Peter, a 32-year-old Kuglugtuk resident who didn't want his last name used because of the political climate surrounding the hunt, said it could give Inuit a bad international reputation.

"It's a pretty brutal act -- the way it looks, the Inuit don't care about endangered species," he said. "We don't want to see an endangered species go because it will be gone forever."

Keenainak, however, noted that it was not the Inuit who almost killed off the bowhead whale earlier this century and added that studies needed to be conducted throughout the course of the whole year.

"People who studied this don't spend the year round (here) and (they) make these reports and the people down south believe it. If they're not here, they're not getting all the information," said Keenainak, who is also concerned about the existence of the bowheads.

He added that he sees more whales now, including increased numbers of calves, than he has ever seen before.

"We see hundreds of whales out there now in the Cumberland Sound. We don't see that before. It's a good sign that our whales are coming back."