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RANKIN INLET
A summer caribou hunting season where the thousands of the ungulates passed right by Rankin Inlet posed a few problems, according to the Government of Nunavut.

Thousands of caribou migrated past Rankin Inlet this year, bringing out enough spectators from the community to cause a slight disturbance in the migration, according to the Government of Nunavut. - NNSL file photo

"There's always a lot of observers when you get animals close to a community," said Drikus Gissing, director of wildlife management with the GN, noting it was easy to hop in a truck or on an all-terrain vehicle to go caribou-watching as the animals were close to the community over the past month.

"The biggest concern was public safety but there was also concern of animals being not able to cross a river because of the disturbance of the number of people that were on the side of the river preventing them from crossing. Not necessarily the hunting activities themselves, but the presence of people ... may have resulted in the delay of the animals crossing the river."

As well, there was at least one animal that was found shot and wounded, though not mortally. The shooter was not identified, as the animal was found by a wildlife officer after it had been shot.

Gissing noted this may not have been intentional, and the shooter may not have even known what happened, "but it was a concern - people in the community were concerned about what transpired there.

"There was a number of hunters out there and these types of things do happen. Even the best hunter could miss an animal or have not a good shot placement."

He said the GN would support the Kangiqliniq Hunters and Trappers Organization in making hunting bylaws to help ensure public safety and ethical hunting practices.

Gissing noted there wasn't much wastage, and hunters and trappers organization manager Norman Ford echoed that, but noted that more education is still required, especially for younger hunters.

"The younger folks have to train with the elders, listen to their elders, how they harvested in the past," said Ford.

He said the interest is increasing among young people to do so, and the level of wastage has dropped dramatically since the early 1990s.

"There was a lot of leftover caribou on the land (back then). Compared to those years, we've been getting a lot of improvements ... but we've still got a ways to go for the younger group."

Ford said last year there were close to 100 caribou afflicted with foot rot and were mercy-killed, but that problem did not reoccur this year.

"This year the migration came through and compared to other years when they migrated, it was not bad at all. There was a few but I think that number has really decreased, in the sicknesses and illnesses."

Ford said "everyone's pretty much had their catch for the summer" and the caribou have migrated far away from the hamlet, but there are still a few seasoned hunters out on the pursuit.

"There's some people always out hunting," said Ford, adding the prime time for hunting caribou, the fall season, is just about to start ramping up. It usually lasts from August until October.

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