NUNAVUT
"I've been in business for 14 years in Iqaluit," said Rannva Simonsen, owner of Iqaluit's Rannva Design. "I've never been able to base my business on Nunavut seal skins."

Pamela Michelle Hodder models a Rannva Simonsen design at Rannva Design in Iqaluit. Simonsen struggles to find Nunavut-sourced seal skin, despite a drop in international demand for the product since the 2009 EU seal ban. - photo courtesy Rannva Design Sadetlo Scott wearing a sealskin dress from the Nunavut Sealskin Collection. Local Nunavut designers, like Rannva Simonsen, struggle to source enough Nunavut seal for their designs. - Walter Strong/NNSL A Rannva Simonsen design modeled in Iqaluit. - photo courtesy Rannva Design -

The 2009 EU ban on seal fur, which devastated the international market for the product, hasn't meant an increase in supply for Simonsen.

"I'd say that 20 per cent of the skins (I use) are from Nunavut, because that's all I can get hold of."

With the help of up to eight employees, Rannva Design produces about 200 fur jackets a year, along with accessories like hats and mitts.

Simonsen has always had to source non-Nunavut seal skins to meet her needs. She told this to News/North after reading of increased efforts between the Nunavut government, the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor), and the Fur Harvesters Auction House, to open new international markets for Nunavut seal.

"The fact here is that we cannot get enough local skins," Simonsen said. "I've been embarrassed about it for years."

Prior to the EU ban, Nunavut ring seal skins benefited from strong international demand for East Coast harp seal hide.

But the decline in international demand hasn't translated into a glut of Nunavut seal skin on-hand to meet local demand.

Instead of an increase in available skins, local supply has inexplicably decreased since the ban was introduced.

"Our supply is way down," said Devin Imrie, Government of Nunavut manger of fisheries and sealing.

"Prior to (the EU ban) we were purchasing around 8,000 seal skins per year," Imrie said. "That was our average prior to 2009. After the ban, we saw the number of skins entering into the program drop down to about 3,000 per year."

This decline in skins entering the program likely has little to do with the international drop in seal skin value.

"We've kept our purchase prices constant throughout the EU ban," said Imrie.

Differentials are paid on seal skin if auction sale prices are better than the advance initially paid to the hunter, but differential payments have only kicked in twice in the past 10 years.

Although a strong market could mean higher value for sealers through differential payments, the lack of differential payments prior to the EU ban didn't affect pre-ban production

Steady pricing hasn't been enough to raise supply to meet increasing local demand, even in the depressed international market.

"We don't have a cut-off to the number of skins that can be entered into the program or limit the numbers that a hunter can sell," Imrie said. "We would purchase as many as are provided."

The Nunavut harvesters program purchases all skins brought from the land at a guaranteed price. The program then has skins dressed and marketed through the North Bay-based Fur Harvesters Auction House.

"Right now, we're selling at least two-thirds of the skins we buy back to Nunavut through (our) program," Imrie said.

Nunavut buyers like Simonsen purchase the skins at cost plus a dressing surcharge.

"I'm looking for a reliable hunter or three," Simonsen said. "The government has told me there are not enough hunters."

Although accurate numbers are kept surrounding fur purchasing and sales, little useful data is kept to track hunter participation.

All of the hunters in the Nunavut harvesters program are Inuit, so there are no licensing requirements for them. Participants register once - for life - meaning there's no way to know if a registered hunter is active.

Further complicating things, a single registered supplier could represent several people active on the land.

"You might have one person selling skins," Imrie said. "But (that person) could have half a dozen young hunters in their family that are harvesting for them."

The best opportunity to find out what hunters are saying would be when they make contact with conservation officers at fur-receiving locations. But Imrie hasn't heard anything coming back to him from that source to explain the decline in supply.

"We're not hearing any talk of decreased numbers of seals or anything like that," Imrie said. "It's more of an overall trend we're seeing in the territory."

"It's something being seen widely across the industry. There's decreased participation in trapping as well. We don't have a firm answer as to why this is happening."

Imrie speculated that a number of factors could contribute to decreased supply. Families may be keeping fur skins for traditional uses, or the international black eye seal hunting has received could be having an effect on the desire to be part of that industry.

The bottom line is that not enough skins are coming into the program, and the data doesn't exist to explain the root cause.

Simonsen likely won't see an increase in supply in the near future, but she probably won't see a decrease either.

The Nunavut seal harvest is primarily a sustenance activity, a commercial skin harvest is secondary. Current sealing levels, Imrie said, are probably in-line with traditional lifestyle demands.

But this doesn't help designers like Simonsen who would purchase skins if they were available.

"When they say there's no market, it's a real disconnect," Simonsen said of publicity surrounding attempts to find new international buyers.

"I want to spend on seal skins, but I can't spend locally."

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