November 19, 1998

Kitikmeot muskox to be sold internationally

A federal meat inspector is coming to Cambridge Bay to facilitate the sale of muskox meat to markers outside of the territories.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

CAMBRIDGE BAY — They are refugees from the last Ice Age, docile and distinctly woolly, and thought to number in the tens of thousands on Victoria Island alone.

And twice a year since 1993, a small group of Inuit hunters from Cambridge Bay have been heading to a camp on the Ekkaluk River, 50 miles northwest of Cambridge Bay, to turn their fat-enveloped flesh into prime cuts of meat.

But until this week, the special flavor of wild muskox from the Kitikmeot was fated to remain virtually unknown outside the Northwest Territories.

That's because Canadian food regulations strictly prohibit the sale of wild game in other territories and provinces unless the meat can be federally inspected.

Starting next week, though, the semi-annual commercial muskox harvest will be closely monitored by federal meat inspectors, and that means this shaggy distant cousin of the goat could end up on fine-dining menus from St. John's to Tokyo.

"Once it meets federal compliances, we are free to ship anywhere in the world," says Kevin Smart, the director of the regional Resource, Wildlife and Economic Development office in Cambridge Bay.

The local hunters and trappers organization has installed a portable abattoir on the Ekalluk River with nearby living facilities for the hunters and inspectors during the harvest, which should take about three weeks.

And the hunters will continue to find a ready local market for the frozen carcasses: the Kitikmeot Foods meat and fish processing plant in Cambridge Bay is preparing to butcher and pack the meat for export under the watchful eye of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

All of which will probably mean that processing this year's harvest will probably require more than the usual 17 or 18 workers it has taken in the past.

"We're going to end up with close to 30," Smart predicted, "because there's a lot more work to do."

Cambridge Bay is one of only two communities in the NWT with significant commercial muskox quotas. Hunters from the western Arctic community of Holman are also permitted to harvest a total of 1,100 animals per year.

The Victoria Island muskox herd is conservatively estimated to be about 50,000 strong — many times greater than the number of caribou.

The Banks Island herd is thought to number at least 80,000.