Bowhead hunt power may go to regions

MIRIAM HILL

Regional wildlife organizations should be granted the power to allot the bowhead whale hunt to communities in future years, the chairperson of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board said.

According to Ben Kovic, the NWMB could set a total allowable harvest number, as it does for narwhals, for say, five years, then let the regional wildlife organizations decide how to distribute that total among communities.

“The same thing could go with bowheads,” he said.

The wildlife management board is made up of representatives from government agencies and Inuit organizations. Members met in Iqaluit in mid-January. One of the topics of discussion was whether to establish another total allowable harvest for bowhead whales within Nunavut waters.

Under the land claims agreement, the wildlife board can request permission to kill one bowhead whale every two years if the stocks support it.

The hunt started in 1996 with a whale taken near Repulse Bay. In 1998, a bowhead was killed near Pangnirtung in Cumberland Sound, and Coral Harbour celebrated the millennium year with a successful whale hunt in the Foxe Basin/Northern Hudson Bay area.

A decision was made for 2002, Kovic said, but the board can’t release its finding until the federal minister of fisheries and oceans has had a chance to review it. The minister has 60 days to review the decision, under the Nunavut land claims agreement.

“It’s out of our hands,” Kovic said.

The board had bowhead applications from Keewatin and Foxe Basin communities and also from Pond Inlet.

Muktuk from the hunt is divided up and symbolically sent to communities across the territory.

During the application review process Kovic said it was suggested the board give future bowhead hunt decisions to the three regional wildlife organizations to decide which community should have a shot.

“It’s too much paperwork for the staff to do,” Kovic said, explaining why there may be a shift in decision-making powers. “Every application has to go through this process of reviewing and putting recommendations to the board.”

Kovic suggested the board could set a total allowable harvest for maybe eight years, rather than two, and the three hunts could be distributed by the three wildlife organizations between communities.

The board of directors from each wildlife organization is comprised of representatives from every Hunter and Trapper Organization in the region.

No definite decisions have been made yet, Kovic said, and since there are four new board members, it may take some time before one is made.

“The sooner we work on it, the sooner it would be for everyone,” he said. “It was just an idea. I think the new members will have to digest that for a while.”