Nunavik’s Hudson Strait beluga hunt starts early

Belugas mill around a breathing hole this past February in Sanikiluaq. It’s unclear whether the catch of more than 70 trapped and injured beluga there is having an influence on the quotas for the Nunavik beluga hunt in 2013. (FILE PHOTO)

The Hudson Strait is now open for beluga hunting by Nunavik hunters, the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans said March 19.

From March 20 to Aug. 31, “or until such time as the quota is reached whichever date is earlier,” hunters can take 190 belugas from Hudson Strait, the DFO’s notice to hunters said.

That’s a change from 2012 when the spring and summer beluga hunt in Hudson Strait opened much later, on May 3.

According to online “preliminary” DFO statistics, in 2012 hunters exceeded their spring and summer Hudson Strait quota by at least 18 animals and some communities, notably Salluit, where hunters took more than 50 beluga instead of 30, also exceeded the limits of their community quota.

This year, Salluit’s quota for the spring and summer beluga hunt is 25.

In 2013, there was also a fall beluga hunt in Hudson Strait with a quota of 56. But the March 19 DFO announcement makes no mention of any fall hunt in Hudson Strait.

Last November, there was some strife attached to the fall beluga hunt.

DFO inspectors told hunters who had landed seven belugas Nov. 7 near Quaqtaq that they couldn’t take the belugas back home because the beluga-hunting season was closed.

The DFO had closed the Hudson Strait to beluga hunting Nov. 3 — ahead of the Nov. 30 date spelled out in Nunavik’s beluga management plan — because the overall quota for the fall hunt in the Hudson Strait had been surpassed (although the statistics posted by the DFO still don’t show by how much).

The DFO did not answer repeated queries for more information about what prompted the changes to the timing of Hudson Strait beluga hunt in 2013.

The DFO’s March 19 notice also says Ungava Bay, Long Island and James Bay and the Eastern Hudson Bay zones are still closed to harvesting beluga.

They will re-open later the DFO did say in an April 4 email.

The move to tighten up on the beluga hunt in Nunavik could be a result of the 70-plus belugas, which were trapped in the ice in February and harvested by hunters in the Nunavut Hudson Bay community of Sanikiluaq.

The DFO says in a 2011 document on “harvest advice for Nunavik beluga” that the Eastern Hudson Bay stock “is straddling the limits of Nunavut and Nunavik” and that changes in harvesting practices, such as occurred this past winter, could have “an important impact” on the belugas there.

Removing 49 beluga was from the Eastern Hudson Bay stock would have a 50 per cent probability of causing a decline in the stock, considered as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada

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 current size remained at about 3,000 belugas in 2011, the DFO said.

In 2012, from May 3 to Nov. 30, hunters from the eastern Hudson Bay communities of Inukjuak, Puvirnituq and Akulivik could take nine belugas from the eastern Hudson Bay, and ended up taking 13.

But hunters in Umiujaq and Kuujjuaraapik were obliged to travel to the now-closed Long Island and James Bay for their quota of 31 belugas.

It’s not clear where they’ll be able to hunt in 2013.

In 2012, Ungava Bay, Nunavik, hunters could take 10 belugas. They exceeded the quota by two.

Again, the March 19 notice to hunters does not say whether any beluga hunting will be allowed in 2013 in Ungava Bay.

In 2013, the DFO says the following areas remain closed at all times:

• Nottingham Island and Salisbury Island;

• Ottawa Islands;

• Mucalic Estuary;

• Nastapoka Estuary; and,

• Little Whale River Estuary.