Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Coral Harbour (Oct 19/05) - Preliminary reports from a June survey point to the caribou herd on Southampton Island being in good shape.

Arviat biologist Mitch Campbell oversaw the survey.

While Campbell would not release the official results of the survey without permission from the Nunavut government, he did say the herd appears to be strong.

"The results from our survey have been compiled, but that information hasn't been released yet," said Campbell.

"All I can say is that the herd is doing quite well."

Campbell said survey results were released to the Aiviit Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO) in Coral almost a month ago.

However, when contacted by Kivalliq News this past week, a spokesperson for the HTO said the official results were never received.

Attempts to reach director of wildlife Drikus Gissing were unsuccessful.

Campbell said concerns raised over younger caribou dying in Coral this past winter were unfounded.

He said extreme weather conditions only caused an average number of deaths. "An icing event occurred early in the season and there was lots of deep snow throughout the winter.

"That made it tough on the caribou, but they seemed to do all right.

"We certainly didn't see any large number of dead caribou during our survey."

Campbell said herd pregnancy rates are lower than he'd like, but compiling accurate data is difficult.

He said cows harvested during the past few years may simply have low pregnancy rates.

"Because caribou can be segregated, there may be a group with higher pregnancy rates which hasn't been harvested. We're not sure if we're getting an accurate rate sample from past harvests, but, overall, the outlook appears to be positive. There's no evidence to suggest the range is deteriorating beyond what the caribou can handle and the population seems to be strong.

"But, there's always concern because a lot of animals are being harvested off that island."

If the Coral HTO did have the official survey results, Mayor Johnny Ningeongan wasn't aware of it this past week.

While Ningeongan raised the harvest issue at a Nunavut Development Corp. board meeting earlier this month, he was cautious with his comments on the subject.

"The harvest is extremely important to Coral Harbour's economy, but the health of the herd is always the top priority," said Ningeongan.

"Unofficially, we're hearing positive things, but our HTO is still waiting for environment officials to visit our community to confirm that.

"Until that time, I'm not comfortable in saying the herd is healthy or talking about plans for the harvest."