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QIKIQTARJUAQ/BROUGHTON ISLAND - Ten fishers in Qikiqtarjuaq are learning the technical aspects of a skill their ancestors carried out for generations.

From March 3-26 they took a class on how to assemble, maintain, repair and properly use a variety of gill nets.

"Their grandfathers knew everything about this, for some reason the skills were not transmitted down to the next generation," said instructor John Melindy. "In some ways this is just restoring the traditional knowledge that was there."

Melindy's course is designed to help support the fishing industries of small communities such as Qikiqtarjuaq. In December 2008 he held a similar class in Pangnirtung.

"When the offshore fishing is over this summer we want to drop some gill nets to this community next winter. This will be used as training," said Lootie Toomasie, chairman of Qikiqtarjuaq's Nattivak Hunters and Trappers Organization.

The two main styles of nets are designed for two very different prey: deep-water turbot and surface-dwelling Arctic char.

Inuit have been netting char for generations and Melindy's course is benefitting from the traditional knowledge of his older students. His oldest pupil is in his 50s, though most are 25-35.

An important part of the class is the repair of the nets. Char are typically fished by independent subsistence fishers who will build and tend their own nets, so it's critical they have a good understanding of how to take care of them, according to Mike Walsh of the Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium.

Char nets can be dropped through ice, making the investment of a boat unnecessary. Fishers cut a hole and feed the net through, then cut another hole nearby, guide the net to the new hole and repeat until the net is spread wide.

By contrast, turbot fishing is done by a company boat with its own nets. With turbot fishing one consideration is how not to lose nets, Walsh said. Recording the net's navigational position helps. If necessary, a boat can drag its anchor at proper depth and try to snare its nets back.

The course took place through Arctic College with the help of the Nunavut Fisheries Training Consortium.