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Animal deformities on the rise, hunters say

"Are we confident in the health of our wildlife?"

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Frank Nutarasungnik, a community coordinator for the wildlife health assessment project, interviews an elder in Arviat. (PHOTO COURTESY OF WWF)

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Nunavummiut's traditional sources of country food, like caribou and seal, are increasingly showing up with deformities like swollen joints and ragged fur.

Hunters and elders interviewed by researchers with the World Wildlife Fund and Trent University concluded that deformities and migration changes have been on the rise for the past 10 years.

The Nunavut Wildlife Health Assessment was released earlier this month at a workshop at the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. office in Iqaluit, where the authors stressed the importance of paying attention to observations made by hunters.

All workshop participants agreed that it is still safe, and even preferable, for Nunavummiut to eat country food.

Researchers visited Pangnirtung, Coral Harbour and Arviat to record residents' opinions on how they think global warming and pollutants are affecting the local wildlife. They spoke with 10 hunters from each community from 2000 to 2002.

Authors of the 61-page report avoided any declarations of a direct link between climate change, pollution and the deformities found in the animals. Hunters were not sure what was causing the changes, but did suspect chemical contaminants could be a factor making wildlife more prone to disease.

"This sort of study should be taken seriously," said Susan Sang, a WWF researcher and one of the report's authors. "Problems with contaminants... with climate change are not going to go away."

Sang said, even without firm conclusions, the information in the report will help map trends in the future on changes to Arctic animals.

She said the species studied in the report haven't been looked at very much because researchers find it expensive to do projects in the Arctic. This particular report cost $500,000.

NTI's wildlife department is pointing to the hunters' observations as a reason to set up a program to monitor the health of wildlife in the territory.

Glenn Williams, a special advisor to NTI on wildlife issues, said the federal government is responsible for making sure that it's safe for Nunavummiut to eat their traditional country food.

Williams said the government has laws and regulations for other food products in grocery stores, so the same amount of protection should apply to country food.

"Wildlife is critical to Inuit socially, culturally and economically," Williams said. "I'm not throwing up flags saying 'don't eat this, and don't eat that.' But are we confident in the health of our wildlife?"

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada officials attending a recent workshop on the study said they're already keeping an eye on Nunavut wildlife, through a research project called the Northern Contaminants Program.

INAC has released several volumes of research in Canadian Arctic Contaminants Assessment Report since 1997, recording the presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as mercury, in the North.

"The results we've seen are encouraging," said Jason Stow, an INAC wildlife biologist. "Each POP is different, but most of them seem to be going down or at least not increasing."

Stow said the program will continue its research by measuring the level of contaminants in ring seal, beluga, narwhal, walrus, polar bear, char, caribou, and seabird eggs. The samples will be taken annually near Arviat, Resolute Bay, and Sachs Harbour. Over the next five years, scientists will stop by seven other communities.

He said this might include taking voluntary blood samples from residents.

WWF researchers plan to release results on contaminant levels found in harvested animals in Pangnirtung, Coral Harbour and Arviat, later this year.

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