Nunavut hunters resist species at risk protection for polar bears

Nunavut hunters resisted another attempt to change the way bear populations are managed during a set of special hearings before the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board earlier this month.

COSEWIC, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, is asking the federal government to approve the classification of polar bears as a species of “special concern” under the Species at Risk act (SARA)

Community response forms tabled from all over Nunavut testified that hunters are seeing more bears than in the past, to the contrary of concerns of declining populations.

“The excess increase in bears has made it dangerous to be in tents in the summer, as they are naturally fearsome, and they also now know that there is food around communities,” reads the translated testimony of Arsene Ivalu of Igloolik.

The wildlife board hosted the three-day meeting, with board members, hunters, elders and representatives of the relevant federal agencies, as part a required consultation process

Polar bears have been listed as “special concern” under SARA since 1991, but a review of their status began in February 2008.

During his closing arguments, Robert Moshenko of the Canadian Wildlife Service said polar bears need the “special concern” status to satisfy international opinion.

He said that – true or not – the global opinion is that the Arctic’s sea ice is declining, threatening polar bear populations.

Moshenko said the special concern classification would be a positive sign to the rest of the world of Canada’s good management of polar bear populations.

Several NWMB board members expressed doubt that the weather is warming.

“There’s no sign of global warming in that part of the country [Cambridge Bay],” said Attima Hadlari.

However, Hadlari and others readily agreed that the ice is nowhere near as stable as in the past, perhaps the product of warming ocean currents.

Pauloosie Veevee said glaciers that reached right down to the sea as when he was a child now ended a few miles inland.

“It’s obvious, looking at the sea and our sea ice near our community of Pangnirtung,” he said.

Jayko Alooloo of Pond Inlet said such climate changes have been happening for centuries.

Some hunters said they doubt the satellite images and computer models that predict even less sea ice in future years.

“It’s not accurate, the modeling they are doing into the future” said Hadlari. “I don’t thing we should rely on them, because they are not accurate.

Nunavut Tunngavik’s wildlife director, Gabriel Nirlungayuk, agreed, saying short-term weather forecasts are often wrong, so long-term climate predictions are even less reliable.

Moshenko asked hunters how ship traffic affects polar bears, since ship traffic breaks up the sea ice and he’s heard from hunters that polar bears adapt well to poor ice conditions.

In response, Ovide Alakannuak from Kugaruuk told Moshenko that other types of wildlife, such as seals, need sea ice more than bears,

“These are the facts about the world, whether or not we like them or agree with them,” he said.

NTI’s Nirlungayuk argued the opposite, saying such a classification creates an opening for animal welfare groups to try to influence Canada’s polar bear trade by citing the need for a “precautionary approach” to conservation.

The special concern classification, however, would not affect traditional Inuit harvesting rights.

But if federal environment minister Jim Prentice approves the listing, it’s not clear if it will affect sport hunting by foreign tourists.

Canada’s sport-hunting industry has already largely collapsed due to import bans on polar bear parts in the United States, Mexico and the European Union.

Nirlungayuk also pointed out that such an up-listing would mean the federal government would have to establish a national management plan for the species.

“How will that affect us?” Nirlungayuk asked.

Right now, polar bears in North America are managed by territorial and provincial governments and the State of Alaska.

The government of Nunavut has endorsed the COSEWIC uplisting, stating that “Nunavut stakeholders can expect significant participation I this process [developing a national management plan].”

Nirlungayuk doubted a GN claim that the uplisting would result in more research on polar bears.

During CWS meetings in the communities with the public and hunters and trappers organizations, only Kugluktuk did not oppose the move.

CWS’s community consultation report says that hunters in Kugluktuk are not concerned about the move because the community’s harvest quota for polar bears is already only two bears per year.

The NWMB meeting in Iqaluit was part of nationwide consultations over the COSEWIC uplisting, with hearings in all the affected territories and provinces over the last two years.

The COSEWIC process is only the latest in a line of decisions by governments or agencies on polar bears, some of which were taken with little or no consultation with the people who love closest to the animals.

In March, the government of Nunavut announced cuts to the total allowable harvest of bears from Baffin Bay, to be phased in over the next four years, a move that NTI and the affected HTOs loudly opposed

But later that month the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species voted against outlawing international trade in polar bear parts, which would have effectively killed what remains of the polar bear sport-hunting industry.

Earlier, in December 2009, the Canadian Wildlife Service quietly stopped issuing export permits for bear trophies from Baffin Bay.