May 10, 2002
Beluga studies to get federal
money
The federal Stewardship
Habitat program has earmarked about $100,000 for two beluga projects in Nunavik.
A study on elders
traditional knowledge of beluga will receive $86,150.
The project, administered
by the Kativik Regional Government, will try to foster an exchange between Nunavik
elders and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Elders, DFO scientists
and fisheries guardians from Nunavik are to meet at the DFOs Maurice Lamontagne
Institute in Mont-Joli, where they will exchange traditional and scientific
knowledge about belugas in the Ungava and Hudson bays. The discussions will
be recorded on video.
The video be used at a
later time, when the elders take a planned tour of Nunavik communities and speak
in Inuttitut to the population about beluga management and a proposed beluga
recovery plan.
The Nunavik Research Centre
will coordinate another project, slated to receive $14,180, on noise levels
generated by outboard motors in the eastern Hudson Bay.
Noise is thought to contribute
to the decline in the numbers of beluga in the Natsapoka and Little Whale estuaries.
The Stewardship Habitat
Program is a five-year, $45-million program to encourage partnerships among
first nations, landowners, resource users, nature trusts, provinces, territories,
the natural resource sector, community-based wildlife societies, educational
institutions and conservation organizations.
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