The only way to hunt caribou in that region at that time of year is on snowmobile. On his previous trip, Nick witnessed hunters chasing a herd across a lake and shooting them. That may seem unfair to you, but the reality is that this is practically the only way to get near the caribou and hunt them in the winter, so we understand that. It is the right of indigenous people to harvest meat for their own subsistence, and in these northern communities’ meat is insanely expensive, so caribou is life in the north. The issue is the time of year. When you chase caribou in that late stage of pregnancy, the ones you don’t shoot can and will abort their young.
Spring mortality on female caribou and their unborn calves means that biologically, it has a bigger impact on their population than when harvested in the Fall or earlier in the winter. Imagine that these females have survived hunters through the Fall and winter, evaded wolves all winter, and have managed to dig down through the deep snow to find food for months, only to be killed right before they have their young. Hunting on any significant scale at this time of year is not sustainable because mortality on cows and unborn calves can have disproportionate biological impact.
The Qamanirjuaq herd has declined by about 50% from 496,000 animals in 1994 to 253,000 animals in 2022. To ensure caribou are maintained for northern indigenous communities, as well as for non-indigenous caribou hunters, it’s time for serious conversations that include everybody, to ensure that all hunters embrace sustainable caribou harvesting. And make no mistake, you will find skilled, sustainable hunters in all communities indigenous or otherwise, as well as individuals who are ruining things for everyone. Enforcement of laws on all hunters is important, but more importantly, it will come down to leadership and education from within caribou hunting communities. That’s the only hope. We hope to be part of those conversations.
Keep in mind as well that what we saw this past April was all happening in the Nueltin Lake Provincial Park. As most of you are fully aware from MWF’s “Access for All” public campaign, the Federal Government is aggressively pursuing new national parks and Indigenous Protection and Conservation areas to meet the United Nations goal of protecting 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030. So when we hear that we must have another park to protect the caribou, sorry but it sure didn’t help the caribou at Nueltin and it will be hard to argue against the idea that the most important factor for sustainability of caribou populations will be open, frank and difficult conversations about caribou harvesting practices. Same goes for moose. Until we get to the point where female moose and caribou receive greater consideration, and to where harvest of these species is managed in a transparent, shared manner including all people, and overseen by a single government body, the future for these species is not bright, park or no park, rights or no rights.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures (who is in charge of caribou management in Manitoba) has made encouraging statements regarding big game sustainability and for an elected official, he is unusually knowledgeable regarding hunting and wildlife. We are calling on him, our Premier and their government to intervene and bring good people from all parties to the table to have the important and difficult conversations required to ensure there are caribou for future generations.
