Harvesting process done on the land
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Coral Harbour (May 23/01) - The annual caribou camp in Coral Harbour runs like a well-oiled machine.
Planning starts for the event in late October and the hunters and other camp personnel are on-site and ready to go by Feb. 1.
Noel Kaludjak was one of 25 hunters to take part in this year's camp, which had a quota of 3,800 caribou.
The camp was located about 48 kilometres north of Coral, with seven cabins and a kitchen tent.
Each cabin houses up to six people.
Kaludjak says the hunters usually rise about 6:30 a.m., have their breakfast, gather their gear and head out for the harvest.
"About the same time the hunters head out, the rest of the camp have their breakfast and start to get the abattoir (slaughter house) ready where the caribou are skinned, trimmed, in-spected by federal inspectors and packed up for their trip to Rankin Inlet," says Kaludjak.
"The women play an important role at the camp, cooking, skinning and doing a number of other duties.
"Everything is done at the camp from bringing in fresh meat to it being packed and ready to be taken to the airport by Caterpillar."
The hunters usually return from their first trip in about an hour and by 10 a.m. the camp is in full production.
The hunters break for lunch around noon, then it's back out for the rest of the afternoon, returning to the camp by 4:30 p.m.
Kaludjak says the first caribou returned to the camp are usually dried within two hours.
"By lunch, there's 100 caribou already hanging to dry in the camp.
"The hunters are always one step ahead of the rest of the camp and you can see just how good the system works that they've set up for the harvest."
The annual harvest runs for about six weeks, depending on the quota.
It takes another 10 days to dismantle the camp and return the material to Coral.
"The hunters do a lot of driving at the camp. I put about 3,000 kilometres on my snowmachine this year alone," Kaludjak says.
"Overall, the camp is like one big family working together as a unit.
"It's hard work, but it's also a lot of fun."
