Slow start to bowhead hunt
Five communities have been selected to harvest whales
Jessica Davey-Quantick
Northern News Services
Monday, August 29, 2016
NUNAVUT
Five communities have been selected across Nunavut to harvest a bowhead whale this year, and already one has returned victorious, while another has dropped out.
A hunter in Pangnirtung throws a harpoon at a bowhead whale in 2013. Pangnirtung is one of the communities to receive a licence this year. - photo courtesy of David Kilabuk
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Hunters in Iglulik caught an eight-metre-long bowhead, a young male, early in the morning on Aug. 21. Coral Harbour received one of the tags, but the Department of Fisheries and Oceans say the community won't be using it and have called off their hunt.
"It appears Coral Harbour will not be harvesting this year," said Larry Dow, director of Northern operations with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "I believe part of it was financial. But I don't have all the details there, there's a lot of logistics involved in these hunts, it's not a quick event. It takes a lot of planning and consideration." A spokesperson in Coral Harbour could not be reached for comment by press time.
That tag may find itself reallocated to another community.
"It's doable, it all depends on what the (regional wildlife organization) wants to do," said Dow.
The other tag from the Kivalliq region went to Arviat.
Pangnirtung and Iglulik were selected from the Qikiqtani region. The final tag this year, in the Kitikmeot region, went to Kugaaruk. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans determine the quota each year, after receiving recommendations from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.
"We consider proposals provided from the government, for any decision making from the government, or proposals from our co-manager partners. For this case, we held public hearings to make a decision about the quota, or the quota of the harvest," said Jason Akearok, executive director of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. After that, the regional wildlife organizations advise which communities should be selected, then the Hunters and Trappers Organization in each chosen community prepares a hunt plan. After that's been reviewed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the licence is officially issued. At press time, Dow said they'd issued two of the five available licences, to Iglulik and Arviat.
Kugaaruk is set to be next, with preparations underway for a fall hunt. According to J.J Masalrk, the temporary manager at the Kurtairujuark Hunters and Trappers Association, Kugaaruk has no intention of missing this hunt, the first in 10 years.
"We're still in the process of coming up with a crew and everything," said Masalrk. He says Kugaaruk is completing the planning this month, aiming to have a hunt during the first week of September.
"At the moment the crew, they are made up of mostly young guys. In the previous hunts we had older fellows, in 40s, 50s, but now most of the guys signed up for the hunt are 30 years and younger," said Masalrk.
It's been a decade since Kugaaruk last had a bowhead licence, and so he says none of the hunters currently on the crew have ever hunted a bowhead whale.
"The Department of Fisheries and Oceans should come in and train the guys. If not they'll ask for the previous hunt crew to join in."
Otherwise this hunting season in Kugaaruk has been good, with hunters catching "quite a few" narwhals and bearded seals, he said. "But none of the hunters reported any bowhead activities yet," he said.
Iglulik shared their catch with the community, and Masalrk says Kugaaruk plans to do the same should they be successful.
"We're going to share it amongst all the communities. It's probably going to be mostly distributed around the Kitikmeot area. If not, if another community asks, then we're more than willing to ship some out anywhere," he said.
Pangnirtung could not provide details of that community's planned hunt by press time, but could confirm plans were in the works. Arviat is also confirming plans for their hunt.
Akearok puts the estimated bowhead whale population in Nunavut at 14,400. The bowhead was an early target for commercial whaling, and as a result the population was severely reduced until a moratorium in 1966. Today, the species has rebounded and is now rated "least concern" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
"It's constitutionally protected, the harvest. And there's not a conservation concern. And the five whales is within the allowable threshold for harvest," said Dow.
For Masalrk, the hunt is a way to keep his community's culture going strong.
"It's mostly keeping the tradition alive, let young guys have a chance to catch something that they'll probably never catch ever again," he said.
