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ARVIAT - A group of Arviat guides spent time on the land improving their skills earlier this month.

The group was led by Wes Werbowy of Wilderness Consultants, who was brought in by Ryan St. John of Henik Lake Adventures.

From left, Peter Mamgark, Angie Eetak, Mark Eetak, Paul Pemik, Michael Ivunirjuk and Peter Mikeeuneak brush up on their cooking skills during a guiding course in Arviat earlier this month. - photo courtesy of Wes Werbowy

St. John currently has 15 trained guides available to his outfit; each of whom was trained by Werbowy.

"My guides always enjoy training Wes (Werbowy) delivers," said St. John.

"He makes the programs fun for the participants and uses a lot of hands-on practical training.

"I've always found the best training they receive is when Wes leads by example and they're actively involved, because it's something they don't forget."

St. John said his guides always learn something new in Werbowy's courses.

He said they're used to skinning caribou a certain way for personal use but when you're guiding for sport hunting, you have to skin them for taxidermy purposes.

"That's just one example of the new approaches and techniques they learn in the field.

"And being in the field and learning in a hands-on environment, they learn more quickly than if they were in a classroom studying a textbook."

St. John is optimistic his company can continue to grow and prosper in Arviat.

He said sport hunting in Nunavut has huge potential despite its detractors.

"Developed properly, tourism can last a lifetime and beyond.

"I'm not worried about the climate or the so-called decline in the numbers of polar bears and caribou.

"I don't know what they're going to go after next but I'm not concerned because we have healthy populations of wildlife which we manage very well in Nunavut.

"I have confidence in the management plans we have in place for wildlife up here."

St. John said for the most part, the hunters his company has welcomed to Arviat have been happy with their experience.

He said the hunts have been successful and he's received good feedback from a number of his clients.

"We've had a few glitches along the way because of the huge learning curve, but that was to be expected.

"Overall, we offer a very good package to our hunters whether it's muskox, polar bear or caribou hunts.

"We've been featured on the Hunting Report website, which is the most-widely read hunting publication in North America."

St. John said there are still areas his company can improve, such as cooking, cleaning, mechanical and skinning skills. He said his guides are top-notch and they're only going to get better.

"It's all about going the extra mile and ensuring you do things like picking up spent shell casings and cigarette butts when hunters are on the land.

"That's a part that, all too often, people don't pay enough attention to.

"But, when you're offering a pristine Arctic hunt in a remote territory, those are the attentions to detail you have to provide."