The CBC News did an interesting report in December of 2009 stating that the North West Territory Government is banning hunting of the Bathurst Caribou Herd in their winter range.
This comes as a shock to many of the caribou outfitters in the area who had their allotment of caribou tags pulled from them almost overnight. Many of these outfitters depend on these tags for a good portion of their yearly income, and are now faced at looking into other sources of revenue such as northern lights viewing.
The N.W.T government has set aside $150,000 to local outfitters who are being affected by this, to help them redevelop their business to focus on other hunting options. However some outfitters say that with all the changes that are happening they feel it will be difficult to get clients to commit to coming to the territory.
According to studies done by the territorial government the Bathurst herd has declined from 186,000 in 2003 to 32,000 in late 2009. The ban also applies to aboriginal and non-aboriginal hunters.
When asked about the declining caribou herds in the western arctic, Doug Webber, owner of Webber’s Lodges in Manitoba said, “The jury is still out on what the exact situation is with some of the caribou herds in the western Arctic, but hopefully, if numbers are declining, they can recover quickly with careful management.”
Other caribou herds that are still holding their numbers.
“The Central Canadian Barren Ground caribou that we hunt, known as the Kaminariak herd, has a recently surveyed population of 340,000 animals for which less than 500 tags are issued,” said Webber, who has been in the outfitting business for over 40 years. “Outfitters hunting this caribou herd are seeing excellent numbers of big bulls and reports are that the condition of them has been exceptional in the last couple of years. That’s an encouraging sign for all concerned. This is a very good time to be hunting in Manitoba for trophy barren ground caribou.”
To read the complete article at CBC News please visit: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/12/18/north-caribou-ban.html
