Arviat plans for its 1st bowhead whale hunt in recent memory

Hunters in Arviat are excited to be one of five communities in Nunavut selected to harvest a bowhead whale this year.

The name Arviat means 'a place of the bowhead whale,' yet this will be the community's first bowhead whale hunt in recent memory.

"Any first animal or mammal for hunters and kids, like our first beluga ever, is always exciting," said Alex Ishalook, chair of Arviat's Hunters and Trappers Organization.

The communities of Kugaaruk, Pangnirtung, Igloolik and Coral Harbour are the other Nunavut communities approved to hunt a bowhead whale this year.

The regional wildlife organizations select the communities that will take part in the hunt.

At that point each host community prepares a hunt plan for review by the regional wildlife organization.

The hunt is monitored with the assistance of co-management partners including the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the hunters and trappers organizations.

Ishalook said Arviat is now finalizing the hunting plan and the roles of the crew. After that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will issue the hunting licence.

Jeremiah Young with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the federal government closely monitors the hunt "to ensure that there's going to be a safe hunt, it's going to be sustainable, it's going to follow marine mammal regulations, it's going to fulfil Inuit rights, and also the department does obtain biological information." 

Bowhead whale numbers, which declined in the 19th century, rebounded by the mid-1990s. Inuit strongly asserted the right to subsistence harvest of bowhead whales during negotiations over the Nunavut land claim. 

Repulse Bay hunters held the first licensed bowhead whale hunt in 1996.