NTI, DFO to take part in community consultations on narwhal harvest

NTI and DFO will take part in community consultations starting next month to look at total allowable harvest levels for narwhal. (PHOTO BY GLENN WILLIAMS)

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. will take part in community consultations on a draft Integrated Fisheries Management Plan to determine how narwhal are harvested in Nunavut, the organization said in a Feb. 15 news release.

The consultation team, set to start visits to Nunavut communities in March, will look at total allowable harvest levels for narwhal.

As for the draft plan, this stems from three meetings held in 2011 with co-management partners as part of alternative resolution to the legal action NTI launched against the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

NTI first threatened legal action against the federal government in December 2010, after being blindsided by an unexpected export ban on narwhal tusks that affects most of Nunavut and part of the Northwest Territories.

But NTI stepped back from legal action in June, 2011, after DFO agreed to participate in consultations with Inuit.

In the management plan, DFO plans to introduce a new management system based on the summering stocks of narwhal.

This would establish total allowable harvest levels or quotas for each population.

Regional wildlife organizations would then allocate those harvest levels to hunters and trappers organizations, which would allocate tags to their members.

Under that plan, some HTOs may see an increase in the annual narwhal quota, while other could see a decrease.

The goal of the plan is to ensure all narwhal co-management partners follow their responsibilities to ensure the harvest is sustainable and well managed, said the NTI news release.

“The draft plan is based on Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and scientific knowledge,” said NTI vice-president James Eetoolook in the same release. “However, there are areas of the plan where there is a lack of consensus between NTI and DFO.”

Those areas will be addressed during consultations, Eetoolook said.

“It is critical that Inuit participate [in the consultations]…because the management plan represents an important change in how narwhal are managed.”

The DFO will hold nine consultation meetings which will include RWOs and HTOs from 23 communities. The general public is also encouraged to participate.

The consultations will be held in the following communities:

• Pangnirtung: March 19-20

• Qikiqtarjuaq: March 21-22

• Clyde River: March 23-24

• Pond Inlet: March 26-27

• Arctic Bay: March 28-29

• Iqaluit: March 31

• Kugaaruk: March 19-20 (this meeting will include two representatives each from Hall Beach, Igloolik, Resolute Bay, Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak and Cambridge Bay).

• Repulse Bay: March 21-22 (this meeting will include two representatives each from Rankin Inlet, Coral Harbour, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake, Whale Cove, Arviat, Cape Dorset, Kimmirut, Hall Beach and Igloolik.)

DFO along with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board must approve the plan by January, 2013. Canada will head to Thailand to take part in CITES’ Convention of the Parties in March, 2013.