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Children check out the catch as the narwhal hunters head back out to continue the hunt in Repulse Bay in August of 2007. - Photo courtesy of Mike Shouldice

REPULSE BAY - Hunters in Repulse Bay have a lot of catching up to do.

For the first two weeks of the narwhal season, a barrier of ice kept the mammals from entering the bay. There were even rumours the hunt would be cancelled for the year.

However, despite the initial delay, hunters are now making a big push to fill their quota before the whales' departure at the end of August.

"We got only 13 narwhals [so far]," said Marie Kringuk, manger of Repulse Bay's Hunters and Trappers Association. "We still have 59 tags."

Usually ice clears as early as mid-June, allowing plenty of time to make the harvest. Its presence so late in the summer is bizarre, says Kringuk, noting in the past 60 years, she's only seen it happen twice.

Even with the late start, local hunter and economic development officer Steven Kopak is confident the community will be able to make up for lost time.

Kopak noted there are about 20 to 30 boats out in the water for the hunt, accounting for 100 to 200 hunters from the local area and surrounding communities.

"I think we will get 72," he said. "Just barely, anyway."

The prospect of a diminished hunt would be especially unsettling given its importance to the local economy, Kopak added. With dwindling interest in Repulse's fur trade and carvings, people rely on the narwhal harvest more and more each year.

"The whale hunt is very important ... because up here, there are no jobs available at all," he explained. "Nobody's buying the carvings any more ... no one wants to buy the traditional seal skin fur any more."

In Repulse Bay, narwhal tusks are exported, sold to the local co-op or used locally to make carvings, while much of the meat is consumed by the families in the area.

With the high cost of living, said Kopak, the whales provide much needed subsistence.

"They distribute the meat to other people in the community, which is very, very good," he explained. "That really helps out a lot."