Harvest study will guide wildlife management for years to come

MIRIAM HILL

A five-year study compiling a wildlife population database to help make sound wildlife management decisions and set basic needs levels for Inuit was presented to Hunters and Trappers Association chairs and regional wildlife organizations last week in Iqaluit.

Heather Priest, the coordinator of the Nunavut Wildlife Harvest Study, explained that the numbers released were estimates based on monthly interviews done over five years with hunters in each Nunavut community.

“There were field workers in every community and every month a field worker would interview each hunter on the list and ask them whether or not they harvested,” she said. “If they said yes, then we would itemize what animals they got and locations of where they hunted them.”

The hunters would point on a map where they harvested a main animal species, such as caribou, char, or polar bear, and the information would be entered into a database and mapped.

Priest and others will now analyze the compiled information, collected by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board since 1996, before they begin community visits.

They will meet with each community’s HTA and then hold a public meeting. Once the community visits have been completed, a final report will be published and the numbers will then be made final and used for their intended purpose.

Priest declined to release any of the numerical results to Nunatsiaq News before they are discussed at the community meetings.

Priest said she would like the visits to begin before the new year, and the goal is to have most of them finished by the spring.

A workshop will be set up with each HTA, so officials can go over questions and data in small groups. Once questions have been answered and the HTA has given its feedback, there will be a public meeting to display the data.

“So we won’t be doing as much tweaking once we meet with the public, but what we’d like to do is make sure we get that data across so everyone has a chance to see it,” Priest said.

The final numbers will be used to determine the basic needs level of Inuit for specific species — there are more than 60 on the list — and should it ever become necessary to limit harvesting from a population, the basic needs level will get priority over any quota established.

“When it comes to their purpose in the (land) claim the numbers will actually be used for years to come,” Priest said.

The basic needs level can be adjusted up or down, but it can never be adjusted lower than its original amount, she explained, except for the occasion where it can’t be higher than the total allowable harvest.

That means if a population is in danger and a quota is set lower than the basic needs level, the quota stands.

The terms for adjustment of the basic needs level are in the land claim agreement and it’s something that would need to be negotiated and addressed by NWMB.

“If there’s another harvest study done in five or 10 years, the way the basic needs level is calculated can take into account the more up to date information,” she said. “It does allow us to incorporate up to date data.”