Another beluga area closed to Nunavik hunters for the season

Beluga hunters in Nunavik’s eastern Hudson Bay communities had a quota of only nine this year — only a handful of the many thousands caught there in the 1800s. (PHOTO BY J.KENNER DFO)

Beluga hunters in Nunavik will have to wait until next year to land more belugas along the eastern Hudson Bay, because they have already reached their total allowable harvest for 2011.

Between June 24 and Nov. 30, hunters were to take only nine belugas from eastern Hudson Bay — down from 21 in 2010.

The hunt closed down early there, on Aug. 10, according to a notice to hunters sent out from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which said they had already exceeded that number.

This year Nunavik hunters were asked to take most of the region’s quota of belugas — 190 in total — in the Hudson Strait to reduce the hunt of belugas from eastern Hudson Bay.

And hunters were to hunt mainly in the summer and spring, not in the fall, when thousands of beluga often stream through the Hudson Strait.

That’s because DFO officials have said their analyses of beluga tissues show hunters often catch too many belugas from the eastern Hudson Bay during their fall migration through the Hudson Strait.

A 2008 survey determined the numbers of belugas in the eastern Hudson Bay had dropped from 4,300 belugas in 1985 to 3,000 in 2008.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada says belugas in eastern Hudson Bay are endangered, that is, at risk of extinction, and need a recovery plan — something many Inuit hunters, who recall the healthy numbers of belugas along the coast, have protested against.

In 1845, belugas in the eastern Hudson Bay were thought to number 12,500, so the DFO says a recovery plan needs to aim for a population of about 70 per cent of this size or 8,750.

With no harvesting of belugas, the number of eastern Hudson Bay belugas would reach the recovery population size of 8,750 in 35 years, which is why the take, part of the 2011 Beluga Management Plan, is so low.

With a catch of only nine this year, it seems incredible that in 1852 a Quebec whaler called Edward Bélanger told his bosses at the Hudson Bay Co. that there were literally thousands of “white whales” at the Little and Great Whale Rivers and along the “Nistabucky”, that is Nastapoka, River. His positive reports sparked a wholesale slaughter of whales.

In 1854, 423 beluga were caught, in 1856, 743 beluga, and, in 1857, 1,043 were taken.

By 1860, the beluga hunt took 1,500 belugas in Little Whale River and 800 in Great Whale River.

The total catch over a seven-year period was an astounding 4,509 beluga.

But then the beluga hunt crashed as the whales stopped entering the rivers.

In 1868 George McTavish, who was in charge of the Little Whale River post, decided not to bring any trade goods at Great Whale River because he believed boat noise was scaring the beluga away.

But the use of guns, instead of harpoons, may have been the main contributor to the stock’s decline, as many more beluga were shot than ever before, and more were shot than retrieved.

As beluga became increasingly scarce, tensions between Inuit and whalers grew.

At Kuuvik, near Richmond Gulf, whalers reportedly terrorized Inuit women until they promised to sew them mittens. A legend has it that Inuit women made thumbless mittens for the whalers, who were unable to reach for their guns, which the Inuit then stole.

Another story says Inuit killed the captain and crew of a wrecked ship because they had taken women or, in another version of the same story, because they had overkilled local wildlife.

Large beluga kills were still recorded in Nunavik until relatively recently.

The 193 Inuit living in Great Whale River (now Kuujjuaraapik) in the 1950s took 32 belugas in 1954 and up to 55 in 1959.

In the 1960s, an Area Economic Survey said annual harvests ranged up to as many as 144 belugas for the eastern Hudson Bay.

Until the late 1970s, Nunavimmiut still killed an average of 522 belugas every year, more than double the number caught now in the entire region — and the number of people in the region was considerably smaller.

The Hudson Strait, Long Island and James Bay continue to be open to harvesting belugas.

Ungava Bay closed Aug. 3.

The following areas remain closed at all times:

• Nottingham Island and Salisbury Island;

• Ottawa Islands;

• Mucalic Estuary;

• Nastapoka Estuary; and

• Little Whale River Estuary.