Nunavik hunters exceed beluga quota this year

Nunavik hunters say their beluga quota system needs to be re-organized.

By JANE GEORGE

MONTREAL — Once again, it looks as if Nunavik hunters are taking more beluga than they’re supposed to.

The beluga hunt isn’t over yet, but preliminary figures show that several communities have already exceeded the catch allowed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

This state of affairs comes as no surprise to Paulusi Novalinga, the president of Nunavik’s hunting, fishing and trapping association.

According to the quotas, the number of belugas that hunters may kill varies from place to place. The Eastern Hudson Bay zone’s quota is 90 beluga, or 18 per community.

For the Hudson Strait, it’s 100, or 25 per community, while the five communities along the Ungava Bay are limited to only 10 beluga each.

“It’s not fair that some people are getting more and some less,” Novalinga said. “We in Puvirnituq have always felt that way. We are allowed 18 and the other communities on the Hudson Strait are allowed 25.”

Novalinga believes that the current quotas also encourage beluga hunters to rush out and catch more beluga they should to make sure that they get their share.

These quotas were fixed in a 1996 beluga management plan that was negotiated — according to the DFO at least — with community input. The plan is based on several conservation strategies, such as the protection of females, calves and juveniles, controlling the use of nets, avoiding wastage — and quotas.

But in every year since this plan was adopted, Nunavik’s beluga catch has exceeded its regional quota of 240 animals. In 1998, 302 beluga were killed, with two out of three zones exceeding their quotas.

The final tally isn’t in yet for 1999, but the situation will likely be much the same this year, despite poor weather that has kept some hunters at home.

Preliminary figures show that the Hudson Strait zone has already surpassed its quota by two beluga, although some of its communities haven’t even reached their allowable catch yet.

Ivujivik reported 12 more beluga than allowed, while Kangiqsujuaq is over by two animals.

The Ungava Bay zone has also topped its quota of 50 by two animals. Kangirsuk reported 18 beluga killed, eight more than allowed, while Tasiujaq reported 21 beluga, 11 more than allowed.

Some 22 beluga were also reported to be lost and wounded.

Yet these reports may not even give a real idea of the size of the beluga hunt.

That’s because hunters don’t always report the actual numbers of beluga they kill to the DFO’s community agents. They’re worried that their community’s remaining quota will be reduced by an even larger number of animals if the DFO learns that females or young beluga have been killed.

And they’re also worried the DFO may close the hunt for the entire zone if their community’s catch sends their zone over the zone’s quota.

Novalinga said most hunters would support scrapping quotas altogether when the next beluga management plan is fixed in 2001.

“Many are saying ‘Let’s get rid of the quotas.’ We have our own traditional way not to waste animals, and we have our traditional ways to keep people from hunting more than they need,” Novalinga said.

He said that hunters want to conserve stocks and try to kill males instead of females or young beluga. They also want to do something about the effect of noise pollution from boats on beluga migration.

Novalinga and other members of the HFTA executive listened to what hunters had to say about beluga when they accompanied DFO officials on a tour of Nunavik communities from Kuujjuaraapik to Kangiqsujuaq.

Robert Fibich, the DFO’s coordinator of aboriginal fisheries for the North Shore and Quebec, said this tour was intended as “pre-planning” for a Nunavik-wide consultation on a new beluga management plan.

This plan, said Fibich, will be negotiated through “an open discussion between the government and the communities” in Nunavik, with consultations held in each community and also at a regional forum.

Fibich said the message he received from the communities is that they want to keep or see an increase in their quotas, mainly on account of the growing populations within the communities.

But the DFO’s quotas are mainly designed to conserve the resource.

“Everyone has to think now of conserving the resource, for future generations,” Fibbich said. “But we can’t forget it’s their [the hunters’] livelihood, too,” he said.

Fibich said that the hunters’ perceptions that the beluga population is healthy enough to support a larger hunt also need to be looked at more closely.

Hunters maintain that the eastern Hudson Bay stock is very healthy, although a 1993 survey found only 1400 animals.

“Are we sure that the beluga aren’t going in circles? Could it be that a few miles from Ivujivik, they meet a killer whale and they return?” said Fibbich.

Fibbich plans to visit the Ungava Bay communities at a later date.

This willingness of the DFO officials to meet, and then meet again with hunters pleased Novalunga who said it was “the first time they were listening to the people”.

“It was one step towards good faith,” Novalinga said.

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