Nunavut searchers find no sign of missing Arviat hunter

Searchers continue to look for signs of an Arviat hunter who has not been seen since he left his community one week ago.

The man, in his mid-twenties, is believed to have left the community by all-terrain vehicle alone on Oct. 8, heading north of Arviat to hunt caribou.

“He was supposed to be out for a day,” said Thomas Alikaswa, who is coordinating search efforts at the hamlet office. “The next day his family notified search and rescue.”

Alikaswa did not know how well the hunter was equipped to survive on the land. The man’s family said he had a thermos with him, but had forgotten to take his cooking stove.

The family provided coordinates of where the hunter was supposed to be, Alikaswa said, although a search crew found no trace of the man in that area.

A aircraft that joined the search Oct. 15 found an ATV about 50 kilometres north of Arviat, although it’s not clear if the ATV belonged to the missing hunter.

Temperatures in Arviat have been hovering around 0 C for the last few days, with rain and flurries in the forecast.

Aliksawa said that both the local hunters and trappers organization and the search and rescue coordination provide Spot tracking devices to people heading out on the land.

“But I don’t believe he has one on him,” he said. “Otherwise, we would have found him right away.”

A resident of Arviat posted this message to young hunters on a community Facebook page: “Please ask around for spot before you go out hunt alone. Don’t be shy, I get lost too, and I don’t know most of the names too on the land.”