More trapped beluga whales spotted

Beluga whales are trapped in the ice about 70 kilometres from the community of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., for the second time in two months, a local hunter says.

The whales were spotted near anarrow channel leading to the Arctic Ocean from the Husky Lakes, said Chucky Gruben, vice-chair of theTuktoyaktuk Hunters and Trappers Committee.

They often feed in the lakes in the summer, but by fall, they usually return to the ocean through the channel and continue west on their annual migration toward Russia.

In November, the hunters killed about 39 whalesthat were trapped in the lakes and surviving through one remaining breathing hole.

While the hunters were harvesting those whales, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans spotted more near the channel, Gruben said.

TheInuvialuit hunters have no plans to hunt these whales because strong currents in the narrows makes the surrounding ice unsafe, he said.

Meanwhile,the whale blubber and meat from the 39 whales already killed is being trucked to Inuvik, where it will then be flown to Tuktoyaktuk and other Inuvialuit communities in the Beaufort region.