QIKIQTARJUAQ/BROUGHTON ISLAND - Hunters say they are supportive of an upcoming polar bear survey which will give all parties a better idea of how many Baffin Bay polar bears are out there.

The Department of Environment along with several partners are going to be doing a polar bear survey on the Baffin Bay polar bear population later this summer. The last population survey was done in 1993 to 1997. There are not many pictures available of Baffin Bay polar bears but they look similar to this bear found in the Foxe Basin area in the summer of 2010. - photo courtesy of Stephen Atkinson

"It's the only way we'll be able to increase our quota," said Samuel Nuqingaq, chair of the Nattivik Hunters and Trappers Organization in Qikiqtarjuaq. "The survey data they have is way too old."

The Department of Environment's survey is scheduled to start in August and end in September.

"The solution here is to get new information," said Stephen Atkinson, interim polar bear biologist with the territory's Department of Environment.

They are partnering with Environment Canada, the Greenland Institute of National Ressources, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and the Polar Continental Shelf Project.

In order to collect samples, biopsy darting will be used. Chris Hotson, the department's acting director of wildlife explains it as being when a small needle is fired from a gun. Less than five millimetres of skin is collected. Atkison said similar darts have been used in Nunavut on whales.

DNA derived from the skin samples will be used to identify each individual bear. Samples will be later analyzed in a laboratory.

The survey is being done in the fall because this is when bears will be mostly out and about.

Approximately $780,000 has been estimated for the first year of the project. Two helicopters are scheduled to be used. There is a potential, depending on how many bears are caught, to extend the survey for the next two years.

Atkinson said the last data collected was between 1993 and 1997 and it was found there were 2,074 bears at the time.

While scientists have a way to project how many bears there are, Atkinson said they don't know what the current bear population is.

"The hunters keep saying there are a lot of polar bears and without having a survey the GN will never believe that anyway," said Nuqingaq.

In the middle of May, representatives from the department were doing community consultations on the upcoming survey in Qikiqtarjuaq, Clyde River and Pond Inlet to inform residents about the process.

Nuqingaq said members of his board said in August the bears will be coming out of their dens in the mountains.

Last summer, there was a bowhead whale carcass on the beach outside the community which attracted 40 to 50 bears.

Hotson said the input from HTO members is important and representatives from the communities will be going up in the helicopters and helping out on the ground,

"Hopefully the survey will be a success," Nunqingaq said.

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