NUNAVUT - A leading caribou scientist is re-igniting a long-standing argument over whether Peary caribou numbers are stable enough to justify hunting the animals.

There isn't enough population data on the remote caribou herd to safely hunt it without risking serious depletion of its numbers, according to a researcher.

Peary caribou forage on Ellesmere Island in 2001. Wildlife biologists are concerned hunting of the herds should be carefully monitored because their population numbers fluctuate wildly. - photo courtesy of the Department of Environment

However, Inuit have for years insisted their hunting practices are not detrimental.

"If more caribou are dying than bringing in through birth and survival, you're in a negative situation. If you don't know you're in a negative situation, you're in for trouble," said researcher Frank Miller.

Miller, along with Sam Berry, published an article laying out his case in the journal Arctic in June 2009.

A biologist with Nunavut's Department of Environment agreed with Miller's assessment.

"The author makes some really valid points. Frank Miller is one of the leading authorities on Peary caribou," said Debbie Jenkins. "He's done research in the High Arctic for many years now."

To address the issues like those that Miller raised, Jenkins explained that the department had recommended more regulations on hunting the Peary herd. In 2006 the Department of Environment asked for a total allowable harvest, or a quota of 66 animals per year, on Peary caribou hunting. As well, mandatory reporting of hunting was recommended, so scientists can more accurately gauge the population and the impact hunting has on it.

"The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board is considering those recommendations," said Jenkins. "For the DoE, there's no question that responsible management requires accurate monitoring."

Simon Idlout, chairman of the Resolute Bay Hunters and Trappers Association, said mandatory reporting isn't the best way to monitor the caribou population. Instead he said the most effective way to keep track of the animals is to ask the people who are in closest contact with the herd: the hunters who live on the land.

"I think it's a bad idea," he said of mandatory reporting. "Come up to Resolute and talk to us!"

Grise Fiord resident Larry Audlaluk told Nunavut News/North in 2007 that due to the landscape they inhabit on the High Arctic islands, Peary caribou have fewer places to graze and must compete for food with muskoxen. According to Audlaluk, any decrease in the number of caribou is part of a natural cycle.

"The Peary Caribou is not endangered," he said. "The cycle of Peary caribou in the high Arctic is not like your regular caribou in other parts of the North."

Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated issued a press release in 2007 stating that harvesting restrictions cannot be placed on hunters under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

However, Inuvialuit hunters in Sachs Harbour, NWT, adopted a Peary caribou hunting quota in 1990, which is reviewed annually, according to the NWT's Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Peary caribou inhabit a broad range across the High Arctic and are difficult to monitor. However, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada estimates the Peary herd has declined 72 per cent since 1984, to approximately 10,000.

In 1961 a study of a Peary subherd estimated 3,509 caribou in the south-central Queen Elizabeth islands: Bathurst, Vanier, Cameron, Alexander and Massey Islands. By 1974 the same population was estimated at 266.

In 1994 it had grown to 3,155, but three successive years of hard winters resulted in a crash to an estimated 78 caribou in 1997.

Although the south-central Peary caribou have been relatively well monitored, the situation is different farther north. Miller said the Peary population of the north end of Ellesmere has only been studied twice: in 1961 and 2005.

Miller added that Peary caribou are extremely vulnerable to winters of heavy snow and ice. Such winters made feeding very difficult or even impossible for the caribou.

In such a case, no one might know if a herd has had a bad year or two, and continued hunting could further deplete the numbers to the point where it could take decades to recover, he said.

"What they should be doing is making a real effort to monitor the population at a satisfactory level so whatever the harvest is set at that year, that the population can support that harvest," Miller stated.

Jenkins is actually wrapping up a multi-year study of the Peary caribou, and hopes to make its findings public in the fall.

"When the report is finalized we'd like to go to the communities first and discuss the results," she said. "They helped with the aerial surveys and did corresponding ground surveys at the same time ... Overall, I can say we found that indeed some of these populations haven't recovered since they declined previously."

In 2004 surveys conducted of Somerset and Prince of Wales islands found not a single caribou where once there were hundreds of the animals, she said.

Idlout responded that the caribou were constantly on the move, looking for land where they had not been in years so there was more food.

"Those caribou, every animal in the north, as soon as the ice comes they are travelling a lot," Idlout explained. "We saw some. There's some caribou there (on Somerset Island and Prince of Wales Island). We saw them when we were fishing there in the spring."