Radar station worker dies in polar bear attack on Brevoort Island
Victim was employee of Nasittuq Corp., company confirms; two bears involved in attack
An employee at a remote radar station on Brevoort Island, Nunavut., was killed after being attacked by two polar bears on Thursday. Seen here: a satellite image of the facility located on the island, which is just over 200 kilometres southeast of Iqaluit. (Photo courtesy of Google Maps).
A worker at a long-range radar station on Brevoort Island, Nunavut, has died after being attacked by two polar bears on Thursday.
Nasittuq Corp. confirmed the death of its employee in a news release Friday afternoon. It did not release the name of the person or describe the circumstances that led to the death.
Nasittuq president Chris Webb told Nunatsiaq News the company won’t release further information while investigations by the RCMP and other authorities are ongoing.
“We need to respect the family in this tragic situation, and let the [investigators] and the authorities do their job,” Webb said.
The release from the company read: “It is with deep sorrow that Nasittuq Corporation confirms a tragic incident occurred [Aug. 8] at one of our work locations on Brevoort Island, Nunavut.”
The release indicated employees at the station responded to the attack and “one of the animals was put down.”
The corporation is providing support to the victim’s family and counselling services to all employees affected by the incident. The release also said the company is working with authorities as they investigate.
Nunavut RCMP did not respond to a request for comment early Friday evening.
Brevoort Island is a small area at the eastern edge of Baffin Island, approximately 200 kilometres southeast of Iqaluit.
The BAF-3 radar station there is part of the U.S. and Canada’s North Warning System which is operated by the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The North Warning System is an array of long-range radar stations straddling the U.S. and Canadian Arctic.
“Out of respect for the privacy of the family, we are not releasing the name of the individual at this time,” the release said. “On behalf of the family, we ask for understanding and privacy as we work through this tragic situation.”
Very tragic but very new age. I worked there in the 90s and came face to face with these brilliant beasts. It was majestic and scary. I’m feeling for the family, so sorry for your loss.
While in some other areas outside of Nunavut the population of bears might not be a problem, but here in Nunavut we have never had so many polar bears before.
The numbers seem to be increasing each year for more than two decades now, we see a lot of teenage bears coming into town more, those are the dangerous one as they are very curious and less afraid of people.
But out on the land there are some big bears that will stalk you for food. In many areas around Nunavut we can’t sleep in tents anymore, where we used to be able to sleep in tent, but today it’s just too dangerous, we have attacks and deaths almost every year in Nunavut.
We may want to start looking at the population of polar bears closer and see what we can do to help protect ourselves more as the number of bears are at its highest amount ever recorded. It’s getting very dangerous especially in certain parts of Nunavut where bear population are above what they were historically.
Maybe a cull is in order. Controlled and to feed the needy. Bears are omnivores. Well so are humans.
Maybe the government can put a bounty on polar bears and drive them into extinction.
More seals and $$$ to feed hungry children and single mom.❤️
Oh wait!!!! The poor polar bear. WWF would give us the “dirty look” for the savagery.🤣
This might be the single most stupid comment ever published on this site. Congrats.
Not at all! People who are all about save the animals they were here first were destroying their land are absolutely insane, u may be right but so what the human population is more important to most people these people should Sacrifice themselves for these animals if they feel that way
Humans have lived alongside polar bears for thousands of years. Polar bears are needed to control the seals’ population. Without polar bears, the number of seals will rapidly increase, threatening the population of fish. What happens when the fish numbers drops or disappears?
Looks like we have a new winner
Ignorance of the highest degree. More polar bears are coming ashore because the ice fields no longer support them for hunting.
Username checks out.
Bounty on each polar bear killed.
Please?
Every one of them.🤬
No Polar Bear monitor?🤔
Leave the bears alone. They were here before us. If anything g they should have road kill etc flown in to those re.ite places so bears wo t be hungry. Pray for the Polar 🐻
This has to be the stupidest comment on here, out of touch and out to lunch.
Why not stop sending money to fund war and instead use Canadian dollars to build fencing around these communities (within Canada) to protect civilians and workers from coming into contact with hungry bears….. seems like a simple enough solution…
That’s a lot of fencing and those bears are pretty strong!
No bounty required, we will gladly get rid of these monsters just for the sheer joy of eliminating them off the face of this earth. Ice-no ice, monitor-no monitor, they are a threat to every human being in the north regardless of their population. The GN, NWMB have blood on their hands for falsifying the population of these monsters, agreeing to the recommendation of allotment of tags, and choosing to protect them over Inuit-Inuit way of life. Our way of life whether it’s camping, fishing along the shores of Nunavut, and or working at camps, even just walking in the community is more at risk and more valuable than these ugly animals.
They were here first. They were colonized when humans came into their homeland.
“…we will gladly get rid of these monsters just for the sheer joy of eliminating them off the face of this earth.”
Is that IQ?
You win for dumbest comment in history.
nanuq can grow to more than 2,000 pounds or 1,000 kg
The largest polar bear on record, reportedly weighing 1,002 kg (2,209 lb), was a male shot at Kotzebue Sound in northwestern Alaska in 1960.[36]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_bear#:~:text=The%20largest%20polar%20bear%20on,in%20northwestern%20Alaska%20in%201960.
I was there about 12 years ago. Whenever we did work away from the main building, we would be accompanied by an experienced northerner whose job was to watch for polar bears. He always carried a rifle. We saw many polar bears there. I wonder how the employee was attacked and if he was alone.
My niece was friends with the person who was tragically killed by the polar bears…she doesn’t know all the details pertaining to his death, but she did know he did carry on him a rifle….I met him several years ago when he came to visit my niece and another friend here in the States…very nice young man….please pray for him and his family at this difficult time