Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

As polar bear season approaches, tensions are rising over a recent decision to cut the total allowable harvest to eight from 38 in the Kivalliq region. - photo courtesy of Noel Kaludjak

KIVALLIQ - The Kivalliq Wildlife Board (KWB) is refusing to recognize a drastically reduced polar bear quota in the West Hudson Bay area.

In a recent letter to Minister of Environment Olayuk Akesuk, the KWB said it is allocating its previous quota of 38 tags to Arviat, Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove, unless the government fulfills a number of its requests.

The GN accepted a recommendation this year by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board (NWMB) to cut the total allowable harvest of bears in the West Hudson Bay area to eight.

"Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and new scientific technology, they don't match," said David Aksawnee, chair of the KWB. "We've been dealing with this for the past three or four years. I'm hoping to see it settled soon. The hunters on the Kivalliq rely on the polar bear, and that's their goal too."

The KWB's letter outlines a number of grievances, chief among them that the last survey of the area took only a few days, rather than the several weeks that were allocated.

The board is upset that a GN biologist spent only three days by helicopter in the area last year, before returning to Iqaluit to continue a three-month long survey of the Davis Strait.

It also said the GN did not use the maps provided to it by the local hunters and trappers associations, nor enlist the help of local conservation officers.

Nor did GN staff meet with the board as requested to discuss its findings.

The KWB is asking for a more extensive survey, which incorporates further IQ.

"It seems obvious that (the West Hudson Bay) survey was not conducted in the same way or taken seriously by the GN staff," stated the letter, which was dated July 31.

According to the GN, the survey was short because there weren't very many bears to work with.

"In regular circumstances the workers would encounter 20-plus bears a day, and capturing and handling them takes time. There were really very few bears found and they were able to cover the ground much faster," said Steve Pinksen, director of policy, planning and legislation for the Department of Environment.

During the Davis Strait project, researchers found and handled at least 20 bears daily. During their Hudson Bay study, they found 23 in total over four days.

"Simply put, the bears weren't there," Pinksen said.

The most recent survey was only "a check and balance" of 30 years of work previously done in the area, he added.

The West Hudson polar bear population was estimated to be about 1,200 bears in 1994. Surveys indicated that the population had declined to about 950 bears by 2005, according to Pinksen.

In its letter, the KWB also pointed to a number of recommendations made by the NWMB to the GN along with its quota recommendation.

These included the need for community-based polar bear plans to deter bears from coming into municipal areas as well as compensation for income lost by hunters due to the quota cuts.

Currently there are no deterrent plans in place. The GN also does not have a program to compensate people for damage done by bears or for a loss of income due to not being able to hunt bears.

"We are investigating the concept, and that's been ongoing for a couple months," Pinksen said.

Aksawnee said last week that the KWB was still awaiting a response to their letter, which was dated July 31, or any of its previous letters of concern to the government.

"We're trying to figure out if there were any letters that were not responded to, because that's not something that usually would be missed," Pinksen said.

But most local hunters do not have a lot of hope for a positive resolution, according to Stanley Adjuk, chair of the Whale Cove HTO.

"The GN, they won't listen to us anyway. In so many ways, they won't even listen to elders that we sent to try and convince the GN that there are still many bears," he said. "We already took one out in a defence kill month ago. It's too frustrating."

Adjuk said he doubts hunters will follow the rules when the season opens Oct. 1.

"Not sure what'll happen, but I think when there's no tags at all they'll shoot them and not say anything," he said. "Who knows, maybe I'll be one of them."