Animal deformities on the rise, hunters say

“Are we confident in the health of our wildlife?”

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

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.

What’s in the report

Every hunter interviewed for the Nunavut Wildlife Health Assessment said that they’ve seen more occurrences of diseases in local species over the past five to 10 years. Most comments came from residents who have been hunting for several decades.

Caribou were the biggest concern, as 90 per cent of the hunters said they’d noticed swollen joints in a number of the animals after they harvested them.

The report attributes the abnormality to a disease called brucellosis. This highly contagious disease comes from bacteria, and is considered common in Nunavut’s barren-ground caribou. Diseased parts of the animal should not be eaten; other parts should be thoroughly cooked.

Hunters quoted in the report noticed other strange deformities in caribou over the years, including less fat, white spots on the liver and meat, and worms.

“I have seen… marble-shape white cells all over the body,” said Johnny Nakoolak of Coral Harbour. “Those cells were on the lungs and brain… If we kill caribou with those crabby eye[s] on the body, we just throw the whole carcass [in]to [the] garbage. It is not even fit to be eaten by dogs.”

Hunters said marine mammals and fish have also developed deformities. The majority of hunters reported seeing hardened livers and white spots on the flesh of Arctic char and ringed seals.

Char and beluga whale have been showing up more often with cuts and scratches, the hunters said. And, ringed seals have a poorer pelt quality.

They said land and ocean animals, including caribou and beluga whale, were increasingly changing their migration routes, as well.

“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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