Polar bear hunting quota stays put in Nunavut's Baffin Bay

Hunters in Nunavut's Baffin Bay region will be able tokill up to 105 polar bears this season, after the territory's environment minister agreed toleave the quota unchanged, despite concerns from officials about overhunting.

CBC News has learned that outgoing Environment Minister Olayuk Akesuk accepted a recommendation from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board not to cut the Baffin Bay polar bear quota also known as the total allowable harvest for this season.

Territorial government staff had wanted to cut the quota to 64 bears or less. They've argued for the past three years that the harvest there is too high, in part because of hunting in nearby Greenland.

"Combined harvest in the Baffin Bay should not exceed about 90 animals, and presently with the combined harvest from Nunavut and Greenland, it's 176," Drikus Gissing, Nunavut's director of wildlife management, told CBC News on Tuesday.

"So it's a significant overharvesting that's taking place in this population."

But at a public hearing held in Pond Inlet in April, dozens of hunters from Pond Inlet, Clyde River and Qikiqtarjuaq told the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board that the polar bear population in Baffin Bay is on the rise, not decreasing.

The hunters also argued that the government's bid to reduce the polar bear hunt was based on outdated information.

Gissing said the minister agreed to keep the quota unchanged this year in Baffin Bay partly because of the hunters' concerns, and partly because of the amount of time it took for the wildlife board to render a decision.

The government submitted its proposal to the board in 2007, and a decision came about a year and a half later.

"The board's decision only came back in September of 2008, and the present hunting season already started, so we had to make a decision to allow the present harvest to continue," Gissing said.

Nunavut, Ottawa in talks with Greenland

Gissing said he is expecting a backlash from the international community for the decision not to reduce the Baffin Bay hunt quota.

He said Nunavut is collaborating with the federal government, which is in talks with Greenland to work on "the development of an international agreement on the co-management of the Baffin Bay [polar bear population] and other populations that we are sharing with Greenland."

Gissing said the Nunavut government also hopes to start talks soon with hunters and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, to discuss options for next year.

"It might include going back to the board to look at the [total allowable harvest] for the next hunting season."

Hunters' groups contacted by CBC News on Tuesday said they were not prepared to comment on the Baffin Bay quota decision until they receive official word from the territorial government.