With warmer-than-usual temperatures in Iqaluit and several Nunavut hamlets, hunters are being urged to take extra safety precautions. (Photo by Livete Ataguyuk)
Warm weather brings warning for hunters: Be cautious
Talk to elders, other hunters to learn about land and water conditions before heading out, says Jimmy Akavak
With south Baffin experiencing unusually warm weather, hunters in Iqaluit are being urged to be cautious and not travel alone.
“Always bring extra gear like a parka, boots, mitts, and a SPOT device” or satellite tracking instrument, said Jimmy Akavak, chairperson for the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Organization.
He said even experienced hunters have fallen through sea ice and it is getting more and more unpredictable.
“Don’t travel alone, even if you know the area,” Akavak said.
He urged caution, advising hunters to talk to other hunters who have been out on the land or sea recently to learn about conditions and to speak with elders who might know more about hunting in these conditions.
Jimmy Akavak, chairperson of Amarok Hunters and Trappers Organization, urges hunters to be aware of their surroundings during this warm weather. (Photo provided by Jimmy Akavak)
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, records were broken in Iqaluit on Monday with a new record-high temperature for Jan. 15 of 3.3 C.
That broke the old record of 0.8 C set in 1977. Environment Canada has been keeping weather records since 1946.
It said high-temperature records were also set in the areas around Arviat (-5.2 C, old record -9.5 C), Kinngait (0.9 C, old record -9.7 C), Coral Harbour (-1.2 C, old record -5.8 C), Gjoa Haven (-15.7 C, old record -16 C), Pangnirtung (7.2 C, old record -2.9 C), Qikiqtarjuaq area (-7.4 C, old record -8.3 C), Rankin Inlet (-3.8 C, old record -12.6 C) and Taloyoak (-12.1 C, old record -17.8 C).
Akavak said that around Iqaluit, the sea ice is not fully frozen yet.
He said when ice forms, snow that falls on top of it can act as an insulator and “that is why we have to take precautions when out on the ice.”
“It is unusual and it has happened before. It’s becoming normal now that it doesn’t freeze up … cold weather doesn’t kick in right away,” he said.
“Looking at the national weather, a warm-front jet stream is bringing up hot air and unfortunately that is something that we have to get used to.”
Akavak emphasized that it’s always a good practice for hunters to notify a family member, local wildlife office or search-and-rescue on where you are going.
“Like you can radio in to say this area is no good, stay away from here the ice is not fully frozen. It was frozen, now it’s not,” he said.
“We need to have better communications somehow with local hunters and it’s good to help out each other somehow so nobody is caught by surprise due to weather”.
Sound advice.
Gn should offer free swimming lessons in iqaluit to hunters from all nunavut. The world is changing we need to adapt
With the cold temperatures of these waters the only good lessons would do is to help you swim straight to the bottom!
Very funny but knowing some basic swimming and self-rescue techniques even in the coldest water can be a matter of life or death. Gn should be offering this course
GN or Inuit orgs on getting training for hunters?
Maybe we need another push though to get Swimming pools back in all the communities like the 90’s. That would be GN.
Various parts of Nunavut have experienced similar ice conditions over the past 75 years that detailed conditions have been reported. there were numerous similar instances beforehand, described in mariner journals. In the late 1950s and in the mid-1970s, and in 2011 ice was especially upredictable.
Over the past sixty years, the record high temperatures occurred in 1958:
January 21 3.9 1958
January 22 3.3 1958
Another interesting, recent record year was 1963:
January 10 1.7 1963
January 11 2.2 1963
Of course there were many other years before that with unusually high temperatures. It’s an Arctic climate; weather varies, but it’s an Arctic climate. That said the two-kilometer thick glacier that covered all of Canada and a good chunk of the USA just a few thousand years ago, has long since melted and receded. It’s recession allowed us to move here.
A few remnants remain at high altitudes and latitudes
You can peddle your rhetoric if you want, S, but throwing out a couple unusual figures in the past 60 years is simply selection bias. Of course there have always been extreme weather events in the past, but an analysis that does not make. The 10 warmest years since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade. That’s a fact, and that’s a trend.
.
Source is National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, titled “2023 was the world’s warmest year on record, by far”, dated January 12, 2024.
Hunters need to cooperate with each other no matter what. It’s what brought Inuit here where we are today. There are alot of hunters, specifically men who are proud. They do not talk to other hunters when asked where they seen animals. They keep to themselves. One example, one hunter comes home with a caribou. Other hunters notice the load on his ride. They ask the hunter where did you catch it? The hunter with the catch simply replies, out in the land. Not wanting to share his success. He makes the other hunter feel low and unwelcome. These are the hunters who are proud. They are no angunasukti by any means. Even if they catch. Angunasukti in my terms. The way my father taught me. Is a hunting man who shares his catch. Who shares the location. And how many edible animals are there and which way they are heading. Angunasukti. Provider of the family. Of the widowed. Of the poor. Shares all the knowledge. And loves to share and pass it on. Works with other hunters and gatherers. Goes out and observes the conditions. Reports back to other hunters of conditions and animals.