September 14 , 2001

Over-harvesting threatens Canada-Greenland beluga

DENISE RIDEOUT
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Canadian and Greenlandic wildlife officials are warning that the two countries must do more to protect narwhal and beluga in their shared waters.

The group, the "Canada-Greenland Joint Commission on Conservation and Management of Narwhal and Beluga," says the hunting of beluga and narwhal in the waters between Canada and Greenland is killing too many whales.

The two countries share management of beluga and narwhal stocks that migrate between their waters.

Ben Kovic, a member of the Canada-Greenland commission and the president of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, said the two countries must work on managing and conserving whale stocks.

"We try to compromise and set a system that both can agree upon," Kovic said. "It’s kind of difficult, sometimes, when you have a shared stock."

The commission says the current catches of beluga off the west coast of Greenland are contributing to the decline of the stock. It also warns that narwhal catches in both Canada and Greenland have increased in recent years.

Members of the commission gathered in Iqaluit Aug. 29-31 to discuss the current state of the shared whale populations.

"I think we need to step up our pace to come to an agreement where this stock could be managed in a better way."

– Ben Kovic, commission member

They reviewed a report produced by the commission’s scientific working group that alerts wildlife officials to the beluga and narwhal declines.

The report notes that hunting is causing the West Greenland beluga stock to dwindle — a stock that winters in west Greenland and summers in the Canadian High Arctic.

Since the 1950s, the West Greenland population has dropped by 20-25 per cent.

"For management purposes, it is a concern," Kovic said.

The report blames current catch-levels for the beluga’s decline, and strongly recommends that hunting of the stock be reduced significantly.

"I think we need to step up our pace to come to an agreement where this stock could be managed in a better way," Kovic said. "And I think we’re going in that direction now."

Greenland has come under fire in the past for its poor conservation practices.

In a press conference in Toronto on Sept. 7, Kim Carstensen of the World Wildlife Federation in Denmark said Greenland lags behind other nations in the quality of its environmental protection.

For Kovic, Greenland’s situation is a familiar one. "In Greenland it kind of reminds me that we were in that situation 20 or 30 years ago," he said.

"I think we could teach them a lot. They could learn from us."

Kovic said the community-based management system that’s used in Nunavut is a good start. Under that system there are no quotas and the community itself manages the harvest.

"In Greenland it’s more difficult for them because the hunters are just trying to get used to the idea of community-based management," Kovic said.

While the state of beluga populations in Greenland waters is sounding some alarm bells, scientists think the whales in Baffin Bay are doing fine.

The report says the current catches of Baffin Bay beluga — 37 were harvested each year between 1996 and 1999 — are sustainable.

Narwhal hunting increases

In both Canada and Greenland, narwhal catches have gone up.

According to the scientific working group’s report, catches in Canada have increased between 1997 and 2000. In west Greenland, more narwhal were hunted in the 1990s than in the 1980s.

At its meeting in Iqaluit, the commission advised that there shouldn’t be any increase in narwhal catches. It also recommended measures be set up in Greenland and Canada to make sure the stock is maintained.

With files from Jane George