Outfitters regaining clientele after years of setbacks

Six years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the New York's World Trade Centre, Nunavik's $20-million caribou outfitting business has finally recovered its U.S. clientele.

The region's 35 hunting and fishing outfitters struggled hard to regain business from south of the border after 9-11, which grounded planes and stranded hunters in the bush.

That wasn't the only blow outfitters faced.

There was the Toronto's SARS scare.

Then, in 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture slapped a ban on all Canadian beef imports when a cow from Alberta tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy or "mad cow disease." The ban affected the import of meat from all ruminant or cud-chewing, hoofed animals, including caribou.

The ban was lifted to allow caribou imports, but not until scores of U.S. hunters had cancelled their trips to Nunavik.

Also in 2003, James Rambone, an experienced hunter from Rhode Island vanished while on a caribou hunting trip in Nunavik. Rambone, who suffered from epilepsy, was last seen in September that year when he sprinted off in pursuit of a caribou over the rugged tundra near the Caniapscau River, south of Kuujjuaq,

But the fear and unease which kept many U.S. residents at home seems to have faded.

Randall Jones, a financial advisor from New Jersey, survived the collapse of the World Trade Centre buildings by walking down more than 60 stories to safety.

And he recently overcame his fear of flying to come to Nunavik to hunt caribou as a client of Arctic Adventures, the Fédération des cooperatives du Nouveau-Québec's outfitting company.

He has hunted big game on African safaris, and he was eager to hunt caribou in Nunavik.

Another visiting caribou hunter, Norman Boyd, is a 78-year-old resident of the Mississippi gulf coast who went through the upheaval of Hurricane Katrina two years ago. This year he made his first trip north to hunt caribou with Ungava Adventures.

By Sept. 30, when the caribou-hunting season ends, about 3,000 hunters from the U.S. will have come to Nunavik.

About nine in 10 of all caribou hunters bound for Nunavik are from the U.S., said Armando Vendittozzi from Safari Nordik, Nunavik's largest outfitter. Many come from the southern and western states where there's a tradition of hunting elk, deer and smaller animals like squirrels, opossums and raccoons.

Vendittozzi meets new arrivals from the U.S. in Montreal, briefs them on their trip and ushers them to the airport check-in counter the next morning at 6 a.m. for their flight to Kuujjuaq.

Vendittozzi said business hasn't been hurt by tighter regulations for the transport of firearms and a new security rule that requires U.S. air travellers to Canada to carry passports. No one has been turned away from the border, he said, although many hunters chose to drive to Montreal, instead of flying.

The rising cost for a week-long hunting package hasn't discouraged bookings either, although rates for these trips have doubled since the 1990s, mainly due to rising fuel costs.

Arctic Adventures says three-quarters of its hunting trips for next year are already booked, mainly by hunters from the U.S.

Caribou in Nunavik continue to be plentiful. The Leaf Bay and George River herds number about one million animals, and nearly every caribou hunter manages to kill the individual allotment of two.