Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Hall Beach (Sep 02/02) - Slip a boat out into the sub-zero waters at Hall Beach and hordes of walrus can be seen lolling on ice drifts.

It's a sight that brings dollars into the community.

"We are going to see lots of big-tusks. There will be about 5,000 walrus on each island," said Hall Beach hunting guide Ike Angotautok. He has escorted five walrus hunting trips out of the community so far but he also takes polar bear hunts and sport fishing trips.

The sport-hunting industry is a big employer in the area. Two boats and four guides are used per hunter on a walrus excursion. Angotautok uses a 20-foot fibreglass boat with two motors and always has a back-up boat.

"If we had an accident ... walrus are pretty dangerous, and very heavy and they could turn the boat over," he said.

Walrus can weigh in at about 900 kilograms - that's heavier than a horse.

Guides are paid about $200 per person per day on top of contract agreement money. Walrus hunting season runs from the end of July to the end of September.

Angotautok got special guide training in 1993. So far he has guided five walrus hunting trips -- two from the United States and three from Canada.

"I pick them up and take them to the wildlife officer and get the papers signed and get the licences," said Angotautok. Then he takes them out to the hunt.

A walrus hunt's length of time depends on the weather. "If the weather is good, they will get their walrus right away. It's about an hour-and-a-half trip," he said.

Big-game hunting is a type of tourism that brings millions of dollars into the North every year. Its popularity has diminished in the last 25 years but now sport-hunting is making a comeback and bringing its dollars with it.

Boyd Warner's family owned a naturalist lodge at Bathurst Inlet for more than 30 years. Now he's into the game hunting business as well, with his company Adventure Northwest. He contacts Angotautok to guide clients.

The hunter-tourist industry provides much needed jobs and cash to Arctic communities.

American sport-hunters pay $6,500 for a walrus hunt. In Hall Beach every Inuit is allowed to kill four walrus.

Warner described the experience as incomparable. "You are travelling amongst ice floes and seeing seals and walrus."

Then after a walrus is killed, community members skin and clean it, using every bit of the animal.

"We boiled some ribs right there out on the ice and drank tea," said Warner explaining that a game hunter would miss out on those aspects if Inuit weren't guiding.

"We are selling the cultural experience."

Angotautok has a cabin for tourists. That's where Warner stayed.

"And we eat in the hotel and do a lot of business in the local Co-op and everybody buys gas so it certainly all trickles through," he said.

"If an Inuit hunter goes out and shoots a polar bear himself, he will get an average of $100 a foot. So a 10-foot bear brings in $1,000. But sport-hunters are paying upwards of $20,000 US for the right to go polar bear hunting," said Warner.

Polar bear hunting season begins in October. Bear hunts are carried out in the time-honoured Inuit tradition by dog team. Angotautok doesn't keep dogs -- he hires dog teams for polar bear hunts. Polar bear quotas are managed in each community by Hunters' and Trappers' Organizations.