FW: Suffering Beluga Opens Hidden Debate

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Juli Kaiss

 

AR-news

 

June 4, 2007

 

Suffering Beluga Opens Hidden Debate

 

 

 

AOL New, June 2nd, 07

 

 

 

Suffering Beluga Opens Hidden Debate

 

 

 

By BOB WEBER, Canadian Press(CP) -

 

 

 

It was the pictures - the injured, undernourished beluga whale still

dragging around the satellite transmitter laced under its skin - that

finally tore the issue open. The sight of the suffering animal prompted

protests from the Qikiqtaaluk Wildlife Board, a group of Inuit hunters who

help manage wildlife in their area of Nunavut, that could change how

research is conducted in the North. " The QWB board was appalled at the

photos presented and discussed at length the inappropriateness of this

method of data collection, " wrote board member Jayko Alooloo last December.

The board, which approves permits for biologists working in the Arctic,

resolved that less invasive research methods must be found. It promised to

monitor future research to ensure no more animals were subjected to such

" horrifying treatment. " For decades, Arctic scientists have depended on

radio collars and tranquillizer darts to help them understand the lives and

movements of animals from beluga whales to tundra swans to polar bears. But

after the board's resolution, the future of those research mainstays is now

subject to ongoing talks between federal officials and unhappy Inuit

wildlife monitors. Some Inuit circulate stories of dead Canada geese or even

polar bears found wearing radio transmitters that might have caused their

demise. Some are concerned about chemical residues left from tranquillizers

used on food species such as caribou.

 

 

And some just think bothering animals is wrong. " Traditionally, it was

Inuit belief that wild animals should not be handled unnecessarily, " says

Joe Tigullaraq, head of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board. " It's just

not considered proper to handle wildlife when you are not intending to

harvest them for food. " Tigullaraq and Alooloo understand that research is

crucial to wildlife decision-making. But both want better alternatives.

" With today's technology, surely we can find a better way to put on radio

transmitters, " Tigullaraq said.Alooloo says scientists should rely more on

direct observation, using snowmobiles or even dog teams to track and watch

animals. Jack Orr, a beluga and narwhal researcher with the Department of

Fisheries and Oceans, has some sympathy for their position. " It's not

always a pretty sight when you see a caribou that's worn a tag for two years

and there's no hair on its neck, " he says. Although transmitters have

improved, they still have to be big enough to hold the circuitry and a power

source, and tough enough, in the narwhal's case, to withstand up to two

years of freezing cold and deep-water dives. But transmitters, which can

beam data to a satellite on an hourly basis, are often the best and

sometimes the only way to study animals that spend much of their lives

underneath sea ice or roaming trackless tundra. " It's like being a fly on

the wall, " Orr says. " These tags provide invaluable information when they're

in their happy place away from human contact. " As climate change and

industrial development forever alter the North, Orr says gone are the days

when an Inuit community need only rely on the accumulated wisdom of its

hunters to assess the health of its animals. " That lifestyle they had, that

intimacy with the animals, is changing. " David Hik, an Arctic biologist at

the University of Alberta and director of Canada's efforts toward

International Polar Year, says researchers are increasingly focused on

co-operation with the human inhabitants of the habitats they study. " If

we're successful in managing wildlife populations, it'll be in co-operation

with northern people, " he says. " We need to ensure they are part of the

studies that are acquiring that information. " It's now routine for

scientists to get the approval of local people when studying nearby animals,

Hik says. Occasionally, scientists are refused permission to handle or tag

animals and must redesign their research.

 

 

Fisheries and Oceans officials and Inuit representatives held a series of

workshops on the issue earlier this spring. More are planned. Tigullarak

says he knows that " putting gadgets on animals " is in the North to stay and

is sometimes necessary. He just wants it kept to a minimum, using tools that

are as unobtrusive as possible. But Alooloo, still offended at the thought

of the suffering narwhal, won't be happy until he says sees major changes to

the way biologists treat the animals they study. " We don't want to see our

hunting animals with a big collar on. "

 

 

 

 

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