Search ends for Iqaluit man missing after April 6 seal hunt

Ward Inlet, shown here on this NASA satellite map, is located south of Iqaluit at the end of Frobisher Bay.

(Updated April 8, at 4:59 p.m.)

Ground-based search crews have called off the search for a 44-year-old Iqaluit man who failed to return from a seal hunt sponsored by the city’s Toonik Tyme spring festival, April 6, RCMP spokesperson Yvonne Niego told Nunatsiaq News.

The search for the man, who is now presumed to have drowned, got underway at 7:30 p.m. April 6, about 12 hours after the man set out from Iqaluit with fellow seal-hunters into Frobisher Bay by snowmobile, as part of a seal-hunting contest.

The hunter was due back in the city by 4:00 p.m. April 6, Niego said, but never returned.

The Iqaluit resident was last seen by another individual at 12:30 that afternoon on the way to Ward Inlet, heading south, on a black and yellow snowmobile with a 12-foot-long qamutik.

“He parted from that individual with limited gear, as far as we know,” and a single tank of gas, Niego said.

Searchers knew the man to be “a very experienced hunter,” she said.

Two snowmobile search-and-rescue crews continued the search April 7, with the added help of a Twin Otter plane in the afternoon, but their search was called off at about 3:00 p.m.

That’s after equipment, which included a cooler, belonging to the hunter was found near the edge of the sea ice, with tracks leading into the water, Niego said.

No plans are underway for the recovery of the man’s body due to the hazardous ice conditions, she said April 8.

Police have not released the name of the man.

Meanwhile, an event, Fear Factor, scheduled April 8 for Iqaluit’s spring festival, Toonik Tyme, has since been cancelled.

“We would like to inform the public that this evenings Fear Factor event has been cancelled but wish to assure everyone that the festival continues and we will see you all tomorrow at the closing ceremonies,” said Toonik Tyme on its Facebook page and the Iqaluit Public Service Facebook page.