NUNAVUT - The Department of Fisheries and Oceans recently completed 11 community consultations in Nunavut as part of its early planning for a network of marine protected areas in the Arctic.

"Since this work is just beginning it seemed a very good time to go visit the communities so we could get their input right from the beginning," said Helen Fast, DFO's Central and Arctic regional manager of the oceans program division.

The visits brought DFO representatives into Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, Pond Inlet, Resolute, Grise Fiord, Hall Beach, Kugaaruk, Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, Cambridge Bay and Qikiqtarjuaq for HTO and community hall meetings.

It was a happy change, said Thomas Suluk, Nunavut's land claims liaison for DFO's oceans division.

"There really has not been that kind of visit before. Usually we get the DFO management, those involved in enforcement or quotas, or scientists ... The fact that this was a visit from the policy makers was seen as quite positive by all the communities," he said.

"They (the communities) consider it a recognition and a reaching out," he added.

He added the overall feeling in the communities and among the HTOs in meetings was positive - and he even heard a few people say they were going to pass on word they "got visitors from higher up in federal government" to other communities.

Fast said the visiting group spent about a day in each community.

"We targeted the 11 in part because they had not had visits in quite a long time from DFO ... and then over time we would hope to make our way to the others," she said.

Fast added the visits are only a first step in a very long-term process.

"What we're aiming to do is work toward a development of a map so that we can identify the most important areas in the Arctic and then, and only then, when the government has resources the map would be used to help identify where the next marine protected areas should go," she said.

She added DFO is very close to designating a marine protected area - which Suluk likened to a national park but in the water - in the Beaufort Sea.

"A little bit more work has been conducted in the Beaufort Sea in the western Arctic. That's because we've been active there for 10 years and we've got a larger planning activities going on there," she said.