Unused Nunavut narwhal tags can carry over to new year

Nearly six dozen unused north Hudson Bay narwhal tags from last year will be available for use by hunters in 2015. (FILE PHOTO)

Inuit hunters in Nunavut’s north Hudson Bay area can enjoy a lot more maktaaq this year — that is if they can find a narwhal pod migrating nearby this year.

Some 82 unused narwhal tags from last year’s hunting season will carry over to this year’s harvest, for a total of 239 tags for the region’s 2015 harvest, according to a recent news release from Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

The carry-over of last year’s tags is possible because of an “integrated fisheries management plan,” the July 3 release added — a plan developed over the past five years between NTI, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, local hunters and trappers organizations, regional wildlife organizations and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.

NTI vice-president James Eetoolook said in the release that the carry-over is “good news for Inuit harvesters [because] it allows Inuit to be partners in the management of narwhal harvesting.”

“This is how we envisioned wildlife management would work when we negotiated the [Nunavut Land Claims Agreement] on behalf of Inuit,” Eetoolook said.

Before the carry-over policy, the release said that unused tags were returned to the DFO, but now regional wildlife groups have one year to redistribute the previous year’s unused tags among their communities.

Narwhal harvesting has been a controversial subject between the territorial and federal governments in recent years.

In 2011, the DFO banned the export of narwhal tusks and products from Nunavut out of concern for the mammal’s population in Nunavut water — a decision NTI challenged, saying it was based on “questionable data” and violated the NLCA.

The DFO partially lifted that ban later the same year.

The following year the federal fisheries department released a draft management plan which split Nunavut into six zones for harvesting narwhal.

The plan significantly reduced the allowable harvest for the north Hudson Bay sub-population to 57 animals.

Inuit organizations criticized that draft plan for using the same inaccurate data and hampering local fishing economies.

In 2012 the NWMB held public consultations on the DFO’s new proposed management plan for narwhal before the plan was officially put into place in 2013.

The final plan increased harvestable narwhal across Nunavut from 734 to 1,280 animals.

At the time, NLCA beneficiaries could harvest 147 animals from the northern Hudson Bay sub-population — a population that hunters from Nunavut and Nunavik must share.

Louisa Pudluk, an administrator at the Coral Harbour Hunters and Trappers Organization, told Nunatsiaq News July 6 that an increased harvest might not make much of a difference to local hunters because narwhals only visit local waters once every four years.

“So the hunters fly up to Naujaat to harvest narwhal, but only if they bring their own tag,” Pudluk said.

Narwhal harvesting contributes significantly to the Naujaat economy, a 2011 study found, contributing about half a million dollars to the local economy.