Nunavut curtails polar bear hunt

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Nunavut curtails polar bear hunt

United States bans import of bear hides from the region

 

 

Aaron Spitzer

National Post

IQALUIT - American hunters are killing too many polar bears, putting the bear

population of a Canadian region in jeopardy, according to a government survey.

 

A study by the Nunavut Department of Sustainable Development surprised officials

when it found about 288 bears around the Kitikmeot region's M'Clintock Channel

when they expected 700.

 

On Tuesday, Olayuk Akesuk, Nunavut's Minister of Sustainable Development, cut

the annual quota of bears allowed to be killed in the area from 32 to 12.

 

The United States has also decided to ban importing bear hides from M'Clintock.

 

However, there are fears the reduced quota will affect the local community

because American hunters pay guides $15,000 to $20,000 for the chance to shoot a

bear.

 

Polar bears in the M'Clintock Channel region -- located east of Victoria Island

in north-central Kitikmeot -- are hunted by residents of Cambridge Bay, Gjoa

Haven and Taloyoak. They are taken for local use and as part of lucrative guided

sport hunts.

 

In Taloyoak, approximately two-thirds of the polar-bear quota goes to sport

hunters, almost all of whom are Americans.

 

Serious concern about harvest levels in the area began last year, when a

three-year study by the Department of Sustainable Development indicated the

channel's bear population was less than half what was expected.

 

Acting on a recommendation from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, Mr.

Akesuk cut the annual quota to 12. Next year, the hunt will be prohibited

entirely.

 

Whether the hunting moratorium will continue will depend on data gathered by

scientists and Inuit hunters, said Ben Kovic, chairman of the Wildlife

Management Board.

 

Without the hunting reduction, wildlife officials worry the M'Clintock bear

population could collapse completely. At the current harvest levels, the bears

would be wiped out in a decade. Even with no hunting, their recovery will be

slow, the study indicates.

 

" The population is showing classic signs of what it would look like if it were

depleted under hunting pressure, " said Steven Atkinson, the director of wildlife

with the Department of Sustainable Development. " The population is in trouble in

M'Clintock Channel. "

 

The study prompted the American government to announce a ban on Jan. 10 on the

importing of M'Clintock bear hides.

 

Under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, bear skins can only be imported

from areas of Canada that have healthy bear populations.

 

Abel Aqqaq, head of the Taloyoak Hunters and Trappers Organization, doubts the

validity of the department's findings.

 

The study " has not been done in a very proper way, " he said. " We see a lot of

bears out in the M'Clintock Channel area. We know the numbers are still fair for

hunting. "

 

But if hunters cannot take back a bearskin rug from the M'Clintock Channel, they

will likely go hunting elsewhere, he said.

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