Nunavut MLA wants answers on Baffin caribou decline

Nunavut’s largest ever aerial caribou survey, conducted in February and March 2014, covered 46,000 miles and cost roughly $1 million. South Baffin MLA David Joanasie wants to know how the government is going to manage the declining number of caribou on Baffin Island. (MAP COURTESY OF DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT)

Recent surveys on the declining Baffin caribou population clearly demonstrate a need for new management measures, South Baffin MLA David Joanasie said in the Nunavut legislature Oct. 24.

And while the Government of Nunavut might not have a plan yet, stakeholders in the Baffin region will get a chance to meet and discuss what to do about the troubling caribou decline at a meeting in Iqaluit next week.

Joanasie asked Environment Minister Johnny Mike — who indicated in May that his department was working with co-management partners including hunters and trappers organizations and regional wildlife organizations to develop a Baffin caribou management plan — for an update on the recommendations from that initiative.

“The research that has been conducted and the studies that have been conducted on the number of caribou is still ongoing,” Mike replied during question period.

The Department of Environment has not released the full results of an aerial survey done earlier this year, but results released last year from a 2012 survey suggest Baffin caribou numbers have plummeted by 95 per cent to fewer than 2,000 animals.

Drikus Gissing, director of wildlife management for Nunavut’s environment department, told Nunatsiaq News in May that, “the numbers in North Baffin are so low, it’s like there’s almost none there.”

Gissing did add, however, that the decline is not from over-hunting but is likely part of a natural boom-bust population cycle.

Joanasie told Nunatsiaq News outside the legislative chambers that scarcity of caribou is a serious concern for hunters in South Baffin as well.

“There’s concerns about the future of the caribou population, for sure,” Joanasie said.

In the assembly, Joanasie pressed Mike on specific options being considered by his department and other stakeholders — such as quotas, relocating caribou from outside Baffin or culling caribou predators such as wolves — but Mike offered no details, saying the review process is still unfolding.

Various stakeholders, including the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, the Qikiqtaaluk Wildlife Management Board, along with Baffin hunting and trapping organizations, will get a chance to discuss issues and options going forward at meetings scheduled for Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 in Iqaluit.

“After the meeting has been concluded, we will have a better understanding of the management issues and of the direction we may need to undertake in managing our caribou population,” Mike said.

Consultations on the dwindling caribou population began in January, when representatives from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the GN, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, and the Qikiqtaaluk Wildlife Board met in Iqaluit for the Baffin Island Community Caribou Consultation.

Mike said that the elders’ advisory committee, consulted earlier this spring on this issue, will also be present at the meeting next week in Iqaluit.

“I don’t know if this is what the communities want,” Joanasie told Nunatsiaq News, “but it could be that a total allowable harvest is identified for the Baffin Island caribou population, basically to set a quota, that might be a route we have to go.”