Kitikmeot Inuit warned to stop selling caribou meat online

In a presentation to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association in Cambridge Bay, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board warned of declining caribou herds in the region.

Paul Emingak is the KIA’s executive director.

“They were concerned that, especially with caribou, that if caribou were to be sold to other communities for profit, then that would diminish the herds in the communities.”

Emingak says some delegates want to stop people from selling country food outside of the Kitikmeot on social media, a growing market in Nunavut.

At the meeting, the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board said it risks eliminating the herds near Cambridge Bay.

The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement gives Inuit the right to sell any wildlife that's been lawfully harvested. 

So far, the only restrictions for Inuit hunting caribou in Nunavut are on Southampton Island, just north of Hudson Bay. 

Sales of meat from caribou in that herd are said to have contributed to the decline. 

The practice heated up in recent years partly to growing demand in the Baffin region, as caribou numbers there plummeted. 

Right now, leaders in the Northwest Territories are holding talks on how to respond to news that the Bluenose East and Bathurst caribou herds, just south of Nunavut's Kitikmeot region, are in an alarming decline.