Arviat safer with bear patrol
'Everybody goes in with their goals and everybody reaches their goals'
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, February 29, 2016
ARVIAT
A bear patrol program to reduce defensive kills begun in Arviat in 2010 demonstrates the power of co-operation despite differing goals.
Polar bears are attracted to waste in the Arviat dump while waiting for sea ice to form in the fall. - photos courtesy of Elisabeth Kruger/World Wildlife Fund
Live polar bear traps in Arviat are baited with seal meat to catch persistent bears and transport them away from community.
Leo Ikakhik, polar bear patrol guard in Arviat, is part of a team that helps keep the community safe from the encroaching polar bear population.<
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"The World Wildlife Fund approached the Hamlet of Arviat to see how we could be able to help and to better understand their situation with bears and humans," Pete Ewins, the organization's lead specialist for species conservation, told Nunavut News/North by e-mail.
"We had conversations with people in the community and region and learned that the town was experiencing quite high levels of conflict between people and bears."
The organization's goal was to reduce the number of conflicts between people and polar bears, thus reducing the number of defensive kills.
"In this region we have successfully reduced the number of polar bears destroyed from an average of eight per year before 2010 to an average of one per year since, despite an increasing frequency of encounters between people and polar bears," according to the World Wildlife Fund, which provides funding for these efforts.
The hamlet's senior administrative officer, Steve England, says the hamlet's primary interest in the program is making the community safe.
"So we partnered with WWF. We're more involved now, and the Department of Environment, as well. "There are three players in what we call the polar bear team for the community. The WWF provides the funding for the polar bear monitor and to properly equip that person. This year we have extra funding for an apprentice for that person," said England.
The polar bear monitor is Leo Ikakhik, who, with the patrol team, uses a range of tools to deter bears, including cracker shells, rubber bullets, beanbags, flares and live rounds.
Live traps are baited with seal meat to catch persistent bears, which are then transported away from the community.
"The Department of Environment has a wildlife officer and at peak bear season they have three casuals hired to form the polar bear patrol," adds England. "I really want to stress the partnerships. It really shows that different organizations can work together. Everybody goes in with their goals and everybody reaches their goals."
According to WWF numbers, there were 190 encounters with polar bears in Arviat during peak season in 2015, with two defence kills.
England says the polar bear patrol accomplishes two things - they keep people safe and when bears are attracted to the community they try to deter those bears and keep them out of the community.
"One of the side benefits is, if there's only one defence kill there's only one bear that comes off the quota," said England.
Arviat, like the community of Hall Beach, which also experiences high numbers of polar bears coming into the community, sees its hunting tags reduced by the number of defensive kills. That can run them into a deficit, as happened to Hall Beach a few years ago.
"So the HTO has more tags to offer to the community for hunting purposes," said England.
England says the community does not foresee bear behaviour changing in the coming years. In fact, hamlet council decided two years ago to stage Halloween indoors for the community, approving a $20,000 budget, because Halloween is at peak polar bear season. The community made headlines across the nation.
"We'll be looking to add to this (patrol) program, not making it smaller," he said.
Which leads to another side benefit - community employment.
England says polar bear season can begin as early as August, peaking at the end of October to mid-November, with the situation going quiet by mid-December.
"But that can change," he said.
The community must constantly be on alert.
"We call ourselves the true polar bear capital of the world," said England, laughing, then explains. "Arviat is on the coastline, which is now the bear's migration path. When the Hudson Bay froze earlier in the year these bears would pass along further out on the ice. There was less interaction with the community. That's a change in the last five to 10 years for sure."
The Arviat Hunters and Trappers Organization also participates in the partnership, but chairperson Alex Ishalook was on duty travel prior to press time and was unable to speak with Nunavut News/North.
David Miller, WWF-Canada president and CEO, indicated in the organization's Feb. 22 news release that the WWF is "now working to share these successes with other Northern communities to expand the program."
