Clyde River (Apr 24/06) - Hunters in Kugaaruk, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak will be able to harvest a few more narwhals this year.

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board approved these community requests for 30 new narwhal tags.

"We support their requests to increase the total (Kitikmeot) harvest from 45 and 75 tags," said NWMB chair Joe Tigurallaq.

The Kitikmeot HTO will now decide how these 30 new tags will be divided among the three communities.

So far, they approved a Kugaaruk increase to 48 tags from 35.

"We're happy because this community is growing and there's lots of young hunters. If we have a nice summer, we'll probably hunt them all," said Kurtairojuark HTO chair Macabe Nartok.

Last year, only 20 narwhals were harvested and Nartok believes this is because "there was a really late summer last year with lots of ice."

They had hoped to carry over all 15 tags they did not hunt in 2005, said manager Ema Qaggutaq, but are "happy" with the 13.

Gjoa Haven HTO manager Teddy Carter said although they haven't heard yet how many tags they will get, he's sure they will receive what they asked for.

"We applied for five more. I think we're going to get it," said Carter.

Last year, the HTO had 10 tags, but they weren't all used.

Taloyoak will receive a portion of the 30 tag increase as well.

Neither Cambridge Bay or Kugluktuk applied for more narwhal tags for the 2006 season.

In the Kivalliq, the Repulse Bay HTO had its request to increase its number of tags to 108 from 72 denied.

No one from the HTO there would comment on the matter.