Late freeze up, ice unpredictability affecting Nunavut hunters

Hunters in Nunavutare feeling the practical implications of changing weather conditionsnoted byscientists in the annual Arctic Report Card released by theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

• Arctic experiences a year of wild extremes as warming goes into overdrive

The report talked about high temperatures and low sea ice over the past year. In Iqaluit, hunter Jimmy Akavak said the freeze up was late to start this winter.

"It's been about a month to a month-and-a-half late around Frobisher Bay here and it's different each year," he said.

ForAkavakthe changes he's seen over the past decade has him urging caution.

• Warmer Arctic Ocean temperatures delay sea ice formation
• Arctic temperatures soar to 30 C above normal

"It makes hunters more wary and we have to be more careful. Where there used to be safe ice sometimes there's thinner ice in some years and that changes again every year."

About three weeks ago soft snow conditionsturned around fisherman that were traveling inland to access lakes, saidAkavak. Theykept getting stuck and had to come back without the fish.

"It does affect hunters inland or out on the ocean, the weather."

This year's delayed freeze upisn't even the worst in Akavak's memory.

"One year about six or seven years ago, maybe less, people were boating to January," Akavak said.

"Some communitiesthey celebrated New Years in a boat setting off flares."

Unpredictability an issue, says scientist

It's the unpredictability of sea ice formation that keeps professor Christian Haas busy. The Canada Research Chair in Arctic Sea Ice Geophysics from York University is in the process of adding equipment to anice breaker thatmeasures sea ice.

"By knowing the thickness of the ice we can provide that information to communities so they can more safely travel over the ice and are more aware of the changes that happen in the environment," he said over the phone from the deck of the ship,docked in Quebec City.

"We do see overall that the ice is getting thinner and forms later in the season and breaks up earlier in the season... Butfirst and foremost we are seeing a lot of variability from one year to the other.

"Even when the ice starts to form in the fallyou cannot easily predict what it will be like in the spring when people go out and travel over the ice."

Haasand otherresearchers want to document the changes in iceso they can better understand what causes the fluctuationsand eventually predict them.

"It does worry me," saidAkavak, citingdocumentaries and reports on global warming that he's seen.

"Some days it's so cold we think, 'hey, maybe there is no global warming.' But it has changed over time. There is something happening out there."