Nunavik community carries on with recovery of local man

This photo shows Nungaq paddling away from Frazier Island on the raft he made from plastic containers. This was the last time his hunting companions saw the man. (PHOTO BY STEPHAN MINA)

Police and dive teams have suspended their search for a missing Nunavik man, leaving the community of Inukjuak looking for help to cover the costs of its own local search.

Jobie Nungaq left the Hudson Bay coast community early Sept. 24 in a boat with three other people. The group headed about 20 kilometres south towards Frazier Island to pick urchins and mussels.

Sometime about 1 p.m., the group’s canoe drifted away.

Nungaq gathered some plastic containers to fashion a raft which he used to try to paddle to the other side of the island.

But a strong current is believed to have capsized the man’s makeshift raft in the mid-afternoon.

Nungaq’s three hunting companions were rescued later the same evening by a passing boat, which triggered a local search of the area.

But by the following morning, Nungaq was presumed drowned, after search crews found the man’s jacket.

The community still hoped to find the man’s body and requested help from police and divers.

The Kativik Regional Police Force finally agreed to charter a plan with the Northern Village to carry out an aerial search of the region.

The Sûreté du Québec provincial police force later sent a diving team to do an underwater search in the area Nungaq went missing, although strong currents made it difficult for the team to carry out its work.

Neither search turned up any sign of the man.

The KRPF said that recovery operations were finally suspended on Oct. 1, the force said in an Oct. 4 release.

That’s left the community of 1,600 to rely on local volunteer searchers to lead the recovery mission—volunteers whom community members say have already put in countless hours of work.

The community has now set up an account at Caisse d’économie Desjardins at the Inukjuak co-op store which anyone can contribute to in order to offset the cost of food, equipment and other supplies for the search crews.

The public can donate to account number 93960.