Salluit’s beluga catch limits other Nunavik hunters

When Salluit hunters landed 22 beluga whales on a single day last week, the news shocked many hunters in other Nunavik communities who fear the region’s beluga quota won’t last the summer and that Hudson Strait will be closed to beluga hunting.

Hunters from the other 13 communities in Nunavik are upset that because Salluit hunters took twice their allowable catch of 11 animals.

“I’m disappointed that somebody has already exceeded the quota we agreed about. I’m disappointed, as is mostly every hunter I know,” said Paulusie Novalinga, the president of Nunavik’s Anguvigaq Hunters and Trappers Organization.

“Regardless which community it is, any community that exceeds its quota, it’s disappointing.”

Several weeks ago, Nunavik’s mayors decided to split the region’s beluga quota of 160 equally among the 14 communities, so each community could hunt 11 belugas.

According to its 2005 Beluga Management Plan, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans will close the Hudson Strait to all beluga hunting when 135 animals have been killed and send in agents to enforce the closing.

“There won’t be any enforcement until the quota is filled,” said Michel Tremblay of the DFO’s aboriginal fisheries division in Quebec City.

Beluga whales from the Hudson Strait zone are the only belugas that may be hunted near Nunavik this year. Both the Eastern Hudson Bay and Ungava Bay coasts are now closed to all beluga hunting, for the first time ever.

These two populations are considered to be “endangered” species and at risk of extinction.

The management plan says Nunavik hunters may travel to hunt additional beluga, either to Long Island and James Bay, or to Ottawa Island south of Baffin Island.

The plan also suggests Nunavik hunters may take 25 beluga from Sanikiluaq before July 1, and 25 from Western Hudson Bay.

Novalinga is disappointed that the Kivalliq Inuit Association and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board didn’t allow Nunavik hunters to hunt any belugas near Sanikiluaq before the cut-off date.

Novalinga said meddling outsiders – that is, southern advisors and officials – not Inuit in Nunavut, are responsible for this decision.

“These people are our relatives. We didn’t expect a ‘no’ from our own people. These people are our cousins. They come to Nunavik and they expect to be fed,” Novalinga said. “We wouldn’t be having such problems if people didn’t interfere. I don’t think most of the people in Sanikiluaq would talk like that if they were given the chance.”

Novalinga, who is from Puvirnituq, said hunters from his community have also gone after belugas by Ottawa Island “for as long as anyone can remembers.”

“Now, we’re told we have to be authorized. We have to contact the Kivalliq Inuit Association and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board before we hunt there. We couldn’t call them [in the past] when we were starving,” he said.

Novalinga is also lukewarm about the idea of Nunavut granting Nunavik 25 belugas from the Western Hudson Bay, if Nunavik hunters can’t hunt the whales themselves. Sanikiluaq residents had suggested they would hunt the belugas on behalf of Nunavimmiut.

“It’s our tradition: it’s what separates the men from the boys. And we do look out for diseases. If someone gives it to us, we have no way knowing there isn’t something wrong with it,” Novalinga said. “We like to hunt for ourselves and we’d like to train our young people too, but it’s not being allowed. We have to be careful – there are so many rules to follow.”

Novalinga has been a major player in the development of recent beluga management plans, and despite his own concerns and criticism, Novalinga is urging Nunavik hunters to respect this year’s plan, its quotas, and how the catch is divided up.

“I’m telling hunters to stay within their quota. It’s the best way, right now until some better consensus is made and there is better research.”