Arctic outfitter draws ire for trash left at floe edge

Some Inuit in Nunavut are not happy with outfitter Arctic Kingdom after hunters near Pond Inlet posted photos online of trash left behind on the floe edge.  

The debris, including plywood, propane tanks and bags of garbage, made up the outfitter's base camp for a luxury narwhal watching expedition. 

The company says in a statement on its Facebook page that the sea ice began breaking up while its staff was setting up for its Narwhal and Polar Bear Safari tour near Pond Inlet on June 20. The company said crews shuttled back and forth from a new camp at a safer location to rescue as much equipment as possible. 

"The photos recently distributed over social media were taken in the process of us relocating our camp," the statement says. "Over the next week we were able to retrieve more equipment, supplies and materials. We provided extra compensation to the hunters who helped us salvage our supplies and equipment and also gifted them with the remaining plywood and a few other materials." 

"We actually still have some of our staff working with our guides," owner Graham Dickson told the CBC. "They're still out there even now to make sure if there's anything that's still there that they can reach, but I think that we were successful bringing back the vast majority." 

Igloolik resident Guillaume Saladin says this isn't the first time the company has left trash behind.

​"My friend ... asked me to go help him get all the garbage that stayed where people camped. So I just went there removing, I don't know what, like 15 garbage bags. Very stinky stuff."