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Wildlife board ponders caribou quota

Chris Windeyer
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 09/06) - The Department of Environment is proposing "total allowable harvests" - better known as quotas - for the Peary Caribou herds in the high Arctic.

The proposal would limit the caribou hunt to 66 animals per year in Nunavut's far North. Environment department staff made the proposal during meetings hosted by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in Iqaluit.

Department statistics peg the total population of Peary caribou at 1,033.

Biologist Debbie Jenkins told the board the quota would allow the population to rebound.

"We can actually facilitate recovery while we're harvesting," she said.

But Grise Fiord resident Jimmie Qaapik isn't convinced. He said harvesters in the hamlet stopped hunting caribou voluntarily a couple of years ago when the animals were scarce. Hunters have been reporting stronger herds of late, he said.

"I would not like (a quota) too much because they haven't finished counting the caribou," he said.

In fact, the government's own December, 2005 working draft recommendations admit as much. "Current information gaps" on caribou populations in the high Arctic include population monitoring by air or ground, information on parasites and disease, and

Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ), the document indicates.

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board meets again later this month.