Bowhead whale keeps eluding Nunavut hunters

Paul Malliki, centre, is currently leading a bowhead hunting party out of Naujaat. He is seen here with Inuk Charlie, left, and Looty Pijamini, right, who were commissioned by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. in 2011 to make a monument honouring the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement. The monument now stands at the four corners in Iqaluit. (FILE PHOTO)

There are plenty of bowhead whales swimming in Repulse Bay near Naujaat, but a hunting party from that Kivalliq community has yet to harvest one.

Naujaat Mayor Solomon Malliki, whose father Paul Malliki is captain of the 16-member crew, said Aug. 25 that weather has been good, but packs of multi-year ice in the bay, about 16 kilometres away, have been hampering their efforts.

Hunters spied a potential bowhead kill and were tracking it, the mayor said, but it dove under the pack ice where the harvesting crews could not venture with their boats.

They spotted another bowhead closer to town, Solomon said, but it was too small. Harvesters who take part in the bowhead quota must choose an animal with a minimum length of 25 feet (slightly less then eight metres), he added.

Solomon, reached at Tusarvik School in Naujaat where he is a community counsellor, said he was part of the bowhead community hunting party in 2012 and 2013. Unfortunately, this year he forgot to attend a meeting where hunters were selected for the harvest so he is not part of the crew.

But he described past experiences and what it felt like to be on the water, near a bowhead whale which, when full grown, is usually 15 metres to 18 metres long and weighs about 100,000 kilograms.

“The first time hunting them is scary. You get shaky a little bit after that,” said Solomon. “But you get used to it. The first one is the hardest one, the scariest one.”

He described his father Paul as a seasoned hunter, especially when it comes to bowhead harvesting. He said Paul was part of the Naujaat crew who got a bowhead in 1996 and has been involved in most community whale hunts ever since.

Once they choose a potential animal to harvest, the crew will first pierce it with a harpoon attached to a long rope and buoy to track it and keep it from diving. More harpoons will follow until they are able to shoot a final harpoon attached to an explosive device.

If the explosion doesn’t kill the whale, they might have to use “killing spears” Solomon said. “In the past, we had to do that,” he said.

Solomon said he learned to hunt from his father. “That’s where I learned my skills,” he said, hunting all animals on land and in the sea, “smallest to biggest, I could say.”

Solomon remembers going out with his dad fishing for Arctic char when he was just a toddler. He says he shot his first caribou when he was seven or eight years old. That was an exciting day.

“I think that caribou had 20-something holes in it,” he said, laughing. “I was shooting at it with a .22 rifle.”

The Naujaat crew, who started going out in five boats around Aug. 14, left town again Aug. 25 in the hopes of finding their prey. The crew consists of 15 men and one woman; she works at the Arviq Hunters and Trappers Association, Solomon said.

They plan to continue going out into the bay until they are successful, he added.

Nunavut currently has a quota of five bowheads — two for each of the Kivalliq and Baffin regions and one for the Kitikmeot.