Cancel sports hunt to help caribou: biologist

A Quebec biologist says Labrador should follow his province's lead by cancelling the sports hunt of the George River caribou herd.

Steve Cote has studied the herd's massive decline in recent years and research shows it's gone from more than one million animals to fewer than 100,000.

According to Cote, that decline shows no signs of stopping.

"These numbers are very alarming for the George River herd," Cote said. "The survival rates are very, very low. And they're lower than what would be sustainable."

Cote says the annual hunt wasn't to blame for the initial decline of the George River herd but it may have a role to play in the continuing decline.