September 14 , 2001

Igaliqtuuq whale sanctuary at least a year away

JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Every morning, weather permitting, whale watchers scan the waters of Isabella Bay, better known as Igaliqtuuq.

For the past month, Ben Wheeler, a wildlife biologist with the World Wildlife Federation, and six Clyde River residents — Raygee Palituq, Alex Paneak, Alooloo Kautuk, Ivan Sanguia, Jayko Apak and Peter Aipellee — have been watching bowhead whales.

For more than 10 years the residents of Clyde River, located about 120 kilometres northwest of Igaliqtuuq, have wanted these whales and their habitat protected by a national wildlife sanctuary.

In August and September, these huge mammals always return to the bay’s shallow banks and deep troughs to feed and breed.

Local monitoring of their activities began last year.

But efforts to study these whales can now be stepped-up, thanks to a new three-year stewardship program organized by the World Wildlife Federation and the community of Clyde River.

Information collected by the program’s participants will contribute to a long-term management plan for Igaliqtuuq.

This plan will be essential when Igaliqtuuq becomes a national wildlife sanctuary.

Igaliqtuuq is thought to be the only place in the world where individual bowhead whales can be observed for several consecutive days. It’s also one of the largest known gathering points for bowheads.

But slow progress in moving towards recognition of the site has frustrated the community, conservationists and government agencies.

A Canadian Wildlife Service official called Igaliqtuuq "a great example of what a community can do, and a terrible example of our politics."

"This area is so special. Yesterday there were 15 to 20 whales mating."

– biologist Ben Wheeler near Isabella Bay.

According to the Nunavut land claim agreement, an Inuit impact -and-benefits agreement must be negotiated before any national wildlife area can be declared.

But past talks about Igaliqtuuq slogged down over just what these benefits would be. That’s because budgets for protected areas are small, and unlike national parks, wildlife sanctuaries emphasize conservation, not recreation and other commercial activities.

"A great example of what a community can do, and a terrible example of our politics."

– says a wildlife official about Igaliqtuuq.

"We don’t put a line up on the map and ignore it," said Kevin McCormick, chief of northern conservation for the Canadian Wildlife Service. "But the approach is different from the more generally recognized park."

With nine other sanctuaries, reserves and wildlife areas in Nunavut waiting for IIBAs to be completed, the parties involved agreed last year to begin negotiating an umbrella deal for these IIBAs.

They’ve held three meetings so far and the final IIBA is about one year away.

After the key negotiators — the Canadian Wildlife Service and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. — sign off on this umbrella IIBA, the area around Igaliqtuuq will finally be withdrawn as a wildlife sanctuary.

"This area is so special," Wheeler said, speaking via satellite phone from his tent near Isabella Bay. "Yesterday there were 15 to 20 whales mating."

The team members use binoculars, a field scope and an instrument called a theodolite to spot the whales and note their characteristics, behaviour and position. They also take photos and videos to record the habits and appearance of individual bowheads.

Before they came to Igaliqtuuq, the group spent two weeks at Arctic College in Clyde River learning how to collect and record scientific data.

Community elders also participated in these sessions, sharing their knowledge about the bowhead whales. These observations have already helped the field team understand what they’re seeing.

"Yesterday, there were five or six whales splashing around in the water," Wheeler said. "It turns out that this is sexual behaviour, so it’s better not to get near them."

The whale watchers will stay in the field until this weekend. Next May they’ll be back to build a small cabin as a permanent field station and prepare for another season of learning about Igaliqtuuq’s bowhead.