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IQALUIT - The impact of high fuel costs on local hunters is clearly visible in the frequently bare freezers of Iqaluit's country food store.

Jim Currie, who owns Iqaluit Enterprises Ltd., said it's getting increasingly difficult to keep stocked with the meat and fish he has sold Iqalummiut for over two decades.

"The last couple of years it seems to be getting harder and harder, especially this year," he said. "The way things are going, I don't even have enough fish to last until Christmas."

He closed down for several months already this year when he ran out of food.

"It's making it really hard to make ends meet, because even when I'm closed I still have expenses," he said.

Many of Currie's customers have been coming through the door since he opened 26 years ago, looking for a fix of maktaaq, caribou or shrimp.

"You know when you don't have a hunter in the family, he's a great alternative for people like me," said Leena Evic, who has been a regular customer since Day 1.

Originally from Pangnirtung, Evic said she rarely gets country food from her family back home. And while she does have friends to eat with here, the store has been her most dependable option.

"I really missed it when it was closed earlier this year," she said.

Currie's special brand of smoked char has been particularly difficult to keep in stock.

Back in a heyday of more plenty, the country food store exported this product around the world, and the humble brown-clad building attracted visits from English and Thai royalty.

Now, Currie said it's difficult to keep up with the local demand alone. A run of smoked fish completed earlier this month sold out in mere hours.

"Everything went in a day. That's never happened before," he said.

He made his last run of smoked fish last week and expected it to go as fast. After that, he could be tapped out of stock.

"I needed 20,000 pounds to last until Christmas, and I probably got about 4,000. (Pangnirtung Fisheries) has none left in their freezers, and the last of their boxes came in last week," Currie said.

It has been a harder year than usual, said Don Cunningham, manager of the Pangnirtung fish plant.

"Fuel is more expensive, and because of the higher cost of fuel the fishermen are only travelling to fish one or two of the closer water body quotas. They left 20,000 pounds of quota in the water this year," he said. "We really needed every one of those fish this year, and didn't get them."

It could be because it costs upwards of $1,200 in fuel alone to reach one of the outer water bodies, "and traditionally the HTA gives equal quotas to everyone, but not equal by distance," he said.

Cunningham said he would like to see the HTA tweak their quota allocation system a bit, perhaps by creating three zones with varying quotas, to encourage some hunters to go the extra distance.

South Baffin caribou hunters are also feeling the pinch, according to Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association chair Joshua Kango.

"Gas is too expensive. That's the main, main cost right now," he said, with his wife, Natsiq, acting as interpreter. "It's hard, not so much for seal and sea animals, but definitely for tuktu."

Migration routes seem to have shifted as well, compounding the problem, he said.

"Even the families of the hunters are craving meat they used to get, when the caribou were closer by," he said.

To help out, the HTA does try to help out the hunters, by organizing donations of fuel from local businesses. It also organizes community hunts, like one upcoming for walrus.

And last week, the Kangos put out a call on the radio after a successful hunt, advertising caribou for those who wanted it.

"We had a pretty good show," Natsiq said with a laugh.