Iqaluit (Aug 28/06) - Climate change will expose Arctic animals to new diseases and potentially put at risk the people who eat them, says a federal scientist who studies marine mammals.

This photo shows abscessed narwhal blubber from Grise Fiord in 2004. The abscess was caused by brucellosis, which DFO scientist Ole Nielsen worries will become more common in Arctic waters. - photo courtesy of Ole Nielsen

Ole Nielsen, a marine mammal disease specialist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, told the Coastal Zone Conference in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT that warming waters will draw southern species northward, exposing northern animals to new diseases.

One of those diseases, brucellosis, has already appeared in a whale in Grise Fiord in 2004. The disease's symptoms include white and yellow lesions in the blubber.

"The animal appeared normal on the outside but when (the hunters) started cutting it up, there were these yellow spots on the inside," Nielsen said in an interview.

The hunters made the right move in notifying wildlife officials and not eating the carcass, said Nielsen.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Health, people who eat infected meat can experience flu-like symptoms, infections in the brain and heart lining, and long-term chronic pain and depression.

Narwhal and beluga stocks face another threat in the form of distemper. The disease has caused "pretty enormous die-offs" of seals and dolphins in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. As pilot whales and dolphins spread North, Nielsen worries Arctic species are threatened, particularly narwhal and beluga which have no previous exposure to the disease and therefore no natural resistance.

What's worse, it's difficult to prevent the spread of distemper, he said.

"It's like preventing Avian influenza from coming into Canada on migratory birds," Nielsen said. "If we could do it, we would do it."

Willie Nakoolak, president of Coral Harbour's Aiviit hunters and trappers association, said he hasn't had any reports of diseased whales from hunters.

But he said a study by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found a 10 per cent infection rate of brucellosis in caribou.

"If we know it has brucellosis, we have to cook it," Nakoolak said.

He said Coral Harbour hunters are more concerned about an outbreak of avian cholera on Southampton Island last month that decimated a breeding colony of eider ducks.

Harry Alookie, manager of the HTA in Qikiqtarjuaq, hasn't heard of any cases of diseased whales from hunters in his area. The fact that a diseased whale turned up in Grise Fiord two years ago doesn't worry him.

"We don't hunt Grise Fiord's pod," he said. "If it was from a group that we hunt I'd be worried."