News of the North

Greetings from Iqaluit, Nunavut

This past months work has been interesting, but not very exciting. In mid-December, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board received a request to increase the quota on bowhead whales. The current quota is one whale every 2-3 years and the request was to up it to two for this year and then starting in 2009 increase the harvest to three per year.

To respond to such a request would generally be straightforward. We would look at the existing abundance estimate for the population of animals in question and model the effect of the increased mortality due to harvest. Unfortunately the most recent abundance estimate, which is based on surveys from 2002-2004 is not finalized yet. In 2006 the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) here in Canada present their results to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Scientific Committee and the estimated abundance was 7309 whales.

That number represents is a major conservation success. Commercial whaling had reduced bowheads in the eastern Arctic to only a few hundred. For the most part they have been protected from hunting since the 1930s with a few being taken in subsistence and cultural hunts by Inuit of Nunavut.

There was a lot of discussion among members of the IWC Scientific Committee when DFO presented the 7309 figure. Many of the scientists were concerned with the method used for data analysis and suggested a reanalysis. So the DFO researchers went back to the lab and started their reanalysis. We were told to expect the revised results in April of 2007, but we still have not seen the final report nine months later. However DFO did present a briefing to the NWMB in response to the requested quota increase and in this briefing the abundance estimate was reported at about 14,000 whales! DFO cautioned us that these numbers are not finalized, basically meaning their upper management hasn’t accepted them yet.

With numbers like this and a clear trend of a growing population, it would be pretty tough to decline the Inuit of Nunavut one whale per year for each of the three administrative regions in the Territory. However, as you are probably aware, wildlife management is as much, if not more, about politics as it is about animals, so who knows what will end up happening. The way the process works is that the NWMB will consider all the available information either at its meeting in March or at a special meeting being held in April. They will make their decision and forward it to the Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans who can either accept, reject, or vary the decision.

Based on my analysis, Inuit harvesting three bowhead whales per year will have no negative consequences on the population. But in the year I’ve been working for the NWMB I have learned that there are no sure things so be sure to check back to find out what ends up happening.

To learn more about bowhead whales and the NWMB visit us @ www.nwmb.com