Hunters start culling narwhals trapped near Pond Inlet

Hunters in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, started killing some of the 200 narwhals trapped in the ice near their community Thursday, while federal officials said there will likely not be penalties for exceeding hunting limits.

Residents in the northern Baffin Island community discovered the whaleson theweekend, trapped in open areas of water surrounded by ice. The whales were found near Bylot Island, about 17 kilometres from Pond Inlet.

Local elders advised hunters to kill the whales soon in order to spare them from further suffering. The narwhals would otherwise die from a lack of oxygen as the ice grows thicker around them, hunters said.

Keith Pelley, an official with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, told CBC News that the law allows for trapped whales to be harvested if all other methods have been used to free them.

In the Pond Inlet case, Pelley said, it appears the narwhals have no way to escape.

Pond Inlet hunters are normallyallowed to harvest up to 130 whales a year and are given hunting tags to track how many are taken.

"They have to have a tag for every whale that is taken, so if it gets to the point that it's determined that there are more whales there than they have tags for and these whales are going to die, more than likely in consultations with the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, we would allow them to take whales," Pelley said Thursday.

He added that DFO would sign for more tags to be assigned to the narwhals thathave beenhunted, should they exceed the quota of 130.

Pelleysaid the narwhal population in the Pond Inlet area is healthy.