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Herd numbers in huge decline Darrell Greer Northern News Services Published Wednesday, February 8, 2012
That's the sobering picture being painted by Government of Nunavut (GN) biologist Mitch Campbell of Arviat, after a survey this past June showed herd strength had declined to 7,500 animals from a high-water mark of 30,000 as recently as 1997. Brucellosis infected the herd in 2000, pushing its pregnancy rate down to about 30 per cent. Campbell said disease and over hunting for export are combining to push the herd to the brink of extinction. He said some hunters ship the meat off the island to people in need, but others can make $200 to $300 an animal due to cheap shipping rates for country food, which is putting unsustainable pressure on the herd. "The export, at any other time during the population cycle, would have been a welcome thing and a benefit to the people," said Campbell. "But it came at a really horrible time, when the herd is being pounded by disease, which has very seriously compromised its productivity. "We're trying to control the harvest and we have great concern about exports. "The science and what the Coral Harbour Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO) believe match completely, but those making money from the export are screaming there's lots of caribou when there's not." Campbell said the Coral HTO is trying to bring together co-management partners, including the GN, Kivalliq Wildlife Board, which has members in Coral Harbour, Nunavut Wildlife Management Board (NWMB) and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., but so far there's been little response other than from his department. He said the preferred approach would be to have all the partners collaborate to resolve the issue once and for all. "My area is science, but, legally, we're told it can't be controlled with bylaws," he said. "A total allowable harvest would have to be put in place, but nobody wants to do that unless they absolutely have to." Campbell said about 90 per cent of Coral's population understands there's a serious issue with the herd. He said if the decline keeps up at this pace, the herd will be entirely wiped out in less than four years. "The community and its HTO are very concerned about this situation, but my sense is the politics of it are holding everything up," he said. "All I can do is release the results, but this herd can no longer be harvested at the same rate until it recovers. "The number of exports is near subsistence hunting to almost double the number of caribou coming off the island. "With this rate of decline, predicting three or four years before the herd is wiped out is probably generous." Campbell said at the present rate, there will only be about 5,000 caribou left on the island by this coming June. He said the estimate of the island's subsistence harvest comes from a harvest study compiled by the NWMB. "We're comfortable with that because it's almost always an underestimate. "We're using the lowest figure the NWMB came up with, which is about 1,200 to 1,300 animals per year killed to put food on the table." Campbell said those numbers were totally sustainable until June of 2011. He said that's no longer the case with the added pressure of exports. "We managed to get the information on how many pounds of caribou meat were being shipped. "And we were very conservative with our estimates of how much meat represented one caribou. "Even with that, by the end of January about 800 caribou were exported off the island since June of 2011. "We're not even through the winter season and there's no sign of this export slowing down." Campbell said he isn't buying any contention the recent survey wasn't thorough. He said four observers were used, which was never done in past surveys. "We had four independent observers and two data collectors in the plane to be bloody sure of our results. "So I have a lot of faith in the information that came back." The observers also saw a lot of dead caribou on the ground during the survey. Campbell said that was probably the result of a tough winter with a lot of icing that hit the herd hard. He said people need to realize 7,000 only seems like a lot of caribou when they're in one area. "When you Ski-Doo up the Kerchoffer River Valley, and you've got 7,000 caribou spread up and down the valley, it looks like you'll never run out of caribou. "But hunters tell us there's none anywhere else. "People need to know this is the last of them. If you wiped out every caribou you saw along that valley, the entire herd would be gone."
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