Photo courtesy of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Management Board, arctic-carbiou.com
The board responsible for the management of two caribou herds in the north is putting out a call for harvesting numbers.
According to the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board, numbers from the herds have been dropping over the past years.
The two herds are found across northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Recent surveys of the Qamanirjuaq herd showed a decline from about 344,000 animals in 2008 to less than 265,000 in 2014.
“This decline is raising alarm bells across the range,” says Board Chair Earl Evans, a traditional Métis hunter from Fort Smith, NWT. “We have seen these trends with most of the herds in the western Canadian Arctic. What makes things worse is we have no idea how many caribou are being harvested each year.”
The board says better information on the harvesting of the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq herds will help them counteract these declining numbers.
One way to get more information is to ask caribou-using communities how many animals they are harvesting each year, but the board admits that communities are wary of sharing information. Some are worried that this information will be used against their traditional way of life. The BQCMB can only make recommendations for caribou management, not set restrictions, but they admit there is a need for respectful dialogue with caribou-using communities.
The board says another big problem is the sale of caribou meat being facilitated by social media and the amount being transported by airline companies.
“One of the companies is now letting us know how much caribou meat they are shipping, without naming names, and that is very helpful,” said Evans. “But, all airline companies aren’t yet on board, and we need full cooperation to get an accurate picture of how big the problem is, including how much social media and subsidized shipping may be contributing to increasing harvest levels.”
The board says these herds have an economic impact of $20 million dollars annually to the communities they inhabit.
The BQCMB says they will be working hard over the coming months to get a better handle on the harvesting numbers. They say they also plan to launch an education program focused on the importance of harvest information, respectful harvest, and the accumulating negative effects of the many factors impacting caribou.