Daniel T'seleie
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (June 13/05) - The number of polar bear harvesting tags issued to Nunavut communities may be reduced in the future, but not this year, or next.

"There is new information that may bring some changes," said Jim Noble, chief operating officer of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. "We've got to analyze it and consult with the communities."

The board met in Iqaluit last week and heard from several sources including research scientist Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS).

The meeting has prompted the government to rethink the quota increase made in January, to 518 tags from 403.

Bear populations in the Western Hudson Bay region have declined from 1,200 animals to 1,000 in the last decade, Stirling said.

He attributes the decrease to "climatic warming," which causes ice on the bay to break up earlier, leaving the bears with a shorter hunting season.

Caution should be used regarding quotas in the Foxe Basin and Davis Strait areas as the CWS does not know what the population trends in those regions are, Stirling said.

The CBC reported on Thursday that government biologists are recommending cuts to the quotas by half in the Western Hudson Bay region and a return to the 2004 numbers in Baffin Bay and Foxe Basin.

In the Baffin Bay region, the combination of Canadian harvesting quotas and unregulated hunting in Greenland is "more than the population can sustain," Stirling said.

Based on this evidence, and projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which indicate the Arctic climate will continue to warm, Stirling recommended the board use caution when determining quota numbers rather than "run the risk of over-harvesting."

In Hall Beach, the news didn't sit well with the manager of the hunters and trappers association, who did not want his name published.

He said the bear quota for his community should not be lowered. Hall Beach currently receives eight tags a year, he said.

The residents do not believe the number of bears in the region is dropping, he said. In April, it is not uncommon to see polar bears in or very close to town on a daily basis, he said.

Increased sightings of bears near towns are not necessarily an indication of greater numbers, Stirling said. They may just be hungry bears attracted by the smell of food and garbage.

Manager of wildlife research for the Department of Environment, Mitch Taylor, would not speak on the record about polar bear quotas in Nunavut.