Broughton Island (Mar 24/03) - The Government of Nunavut is working to develop the rapidly emerging clam harvesting industry on Baffin Island.

Future exports of Maya and Seripes clams could be worth millions of dollars a year to the territory.

Clam diver working near Qikiqtarjuaq on the east coast of Baffin Island last fall. - photo courtesy Government of Nunavut

The GN is putting the industry under a microscope at a major strategy and information workshop in Iqaluit today and tomorrow.

"This is an industry that is evolving fairly quickly," said the GN's Carey Bonnell, with the Department of Sustainable Development in Iqaluit.

The territory now boasts about a dozen trained divers who have been actively harvesting near Qikiqtarjuaq for several years.

"Right now everything is on a pretty small scale. The full potential has yet to be seen."

The two-day session brings industry, government and community people together for the first time to address key issues, he said.

Resource studies by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans over the past several years have been promising.

A 1997 survey near Qikiqtarjuaq projected a resource of some 34,000 tonnes in just one fjord near the community.

At the time, local divers projected the value of a resource that size at nearly $675 million.

"That was a very preliminary study," cautioned Tim Seaford, an arctic marine researcher with DFO.

"But certainly there is a lot of stock there and on that basis it has the potential to become an industry.

"That is if it is done properly and they don't go too far, too fast."

The young industry faces a host of hurdles, including qualifying for an export licence.

That means meeting Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program (CSSP) requirements for water quality and product testing before an export licence is issued.

"The CSSP program has not been established in Nunavut," said Bonnell.

"Given the emerging nature of the industry we think that is a logical next step. We are hoping that this workshop will help in moving forward on implementation of the program in Nunavut."

Other issues to be addressed include markets, harvesting methods, health and training issues, funding, and the extent of the resource and how it is to be managed, said Bonnell.

While the GN would like to see the industry move forward, it will do so "one step at a time," he said.

The first step will be to examine the resource in more depth and determine what it can sustain.

"Then we can start looking at other issues, including harvesting, shellfish sanitation and export development. We have a lot of work ahead of us."