Group pushes for moratorium on Baffin Bay polar bear hunt

An environmental activist group has called for a moratorium on the polar bear hunt in Nunavut's Baffin Bay region, while Nunavut's wildlife board heard from Inuit and hunters' groups on whether to cut bear-hunting quotas there.

No one from World Wildlife Fund Canada attended the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board's public hearing Tuesday in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, but the group submitted a letter voicing its concerns about the impact of hunting and dwindling Arctic sea ice on the polar bears' survival.

The wildlife board is considering a proposal by the Nunavut government to cut the Baffin Bay hunting quota from 105 polar bears a year to 64 bears or less or ban the hunt temporarily there.

The government has argued that the combined hunt in Baffin Bay by hunters in Nunavut and Greenland is unsustainable a point the World Wildlife Fund echoed in its submission to the board.

"The hunting pressure, both from Inuit in Nunavut and I think especially in Greenland, has now been shown in this period to have been much too heavy and unsustainable," Peter Ewins, the wildlife fund's director of species conservation, told CBC News on Tuesday.

While there have been moratoriums on the polar bear hunt in the past, there is not enough data to justify such a move in Baffin Bay, said Gabriel Nirlungayuk, director of wildlife with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Nirlungayuk, who represented the Inuit organization at the Pond Inlet hearing, said no decision should be made about reducing hunting quotas until more data is made available.

"We feel that the research is outdated because it's been over 10 years since there's been proper research," he said, adding that the current data is based on modelling simulation.

Jayko Alooloo, who chairs Pond Inlet's hunters and trappers organization, also argued that the Nunavut government is basing its polar bear numbers on data from the 1970s to 1997.

"We need up-to-date information,"Alooloo told CBC News at the hearing.

Government stands by data

Alooloo accused the Nunavut government of failing to consider Inuit traditional knowledge in drafting the proposed quota cuts. He warned that if that continues, hunters may abandon the current polar bear co-management system and run the polar bear hunt their own way.

However, the Nunavut government stood by its data, saying it used both Inuit knowledge and scientific work to determine the Baffin Bay hunt is notsustainable.

Government officials also argued that Greenland which also hunts for polar bears in Baffin Bay has steadily been decreasing its hunt, so Nunavut should do so as well.

The Nunavut Wildlife Management Board's hearing continues Wednesday.

The hearings began as a federal committee began talks in Yellowknife over whether to consider the polar bear and about 50 other species as species at risk.

The Committee on the Endangered Status of Wildlife in Canada is expected to release its recommendations on Friday.