GAMETI/RAE LAKES
A major amount of edible caribou meat found abandoned near Hottah Lake by Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials late last month highlights unsustainable harvest practices taking place near the community of Gameti, sources say.
Renewable resources officer Ian Ellsworth displays some of the wasted caribou meat discovered near Gameti late last month. These 25 front shoulders were found on Hottah Lake, about 90 km northwest of Gameti. This was not the only meat found at this site, and this was just one of 12 sites where wasted caribou parts were found by Environment and Natural Resources officers, said Ellsworth. - photo courtesy of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources |
Hottah Lake, located about 90 kilometres northwest of the hamlet, is a popular hunting area and is easily accessible by snowmobile.
Gameti resident Joe Zoe said "hundreds of people" travelled to the lake over the winter to hunt caribou. These animals are believed to belong to the Bluenose-East herd, which arrived in the area shortly after Christmas and spent much of the winter there, he said.
"Most of the time, we look around and make sure people don't waste meat but we're kind of too busy. There were people out there everywhere shooting. You just can't keep track of all those people," said Zoe, who works part-time as a resource officer in the area.
Caribou meat has become harder and harder to find in recent years, he said, and residents have to spend a lot of money on fuel when they go out to try to find the animals.
"Whatever they see, they shoot it," said Zoe of what usually happens when those out on the land come across a group of caribou.
However, this is not in line with what people are taught by elders, and many community members are upset by the news so much meat was wasted this winter, he said.
"If you kill animals, you're supposed to take it and use it all - you're not supposed to leave anything behind. That's why we have our grandfathers, our grandmothers to tell us that. Don't waste anything."
Between April 24 and 27, Department of Environment and Natural Resources officers on patrol near Gameti located 12 separate sites where perfectly good caribou parts had been abandoned illegally. These sites were scattered near the south shore of Hottah Lake and the north end of nearby Beaver Lodge Lake.
From the animal parts that were recovered, ENR estimated they belonged to at least 50 animals, said Ian Ellsworth, renewable resource officer for the North Slave region.
"Different sites had different things left behind. Some sites, they'd take just the hindquarters and leave the rest of it. Some sites they'd take some hind quarters and some front shoulders and things like that," he said. "Some, they'd just take all the four quarters and just leave the rib cage - not even gut it."
"A significant amount" of the carcasses were pregnant cows, he said. Some of the fetuses had been left behind, while there was evidence others had been taken.
Bulls were hard to find this year, said Zoe when asked why so many pregnant females had been shot.
It is estimated these animals had been shot within the last month, said Ellsworth. None of the meat found could be recovered and so it was left for animal scavengers. Not only is abandoning edible meat a waste, it is illegal.
Under the Wildlife Act, the only parts of a caribou that are legally allowed to be left in the bush are the head, the entrails, the legs below the knee joint and any bloodshot meat - meaning it has bruising, hemorrhaging or other obvious damage from the bullet that took down the animal.
Non-compliance with these rules can result in a $575 ticket, or if ENR decides to press charges, an individual can face a maximum penalty of $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail per animal involved.
Now, ENR's investigation hinges on whether or not community members will come forward to say who was involved, he said.
The amount of carcasses and number of sites suggest there was more than one group of hunters involved, said Ellsworth. Officials do have "a couple of suspects," he said, but he urged anyone who knows anything about what happened to contact their local resource officer or to call ENR's anonymous poaching tip line.
Zoe was skeptical whether the hunters involved would be caught. However, this type of unsustainable harvesting should not continue, he said.
"I think something has to be done about it because you can't just leave it like that," he said. "You're not a kid just playing with guns. The hunters need to take everything."
