On Monday, the Newfoundland and Labrador governments issued a dire statement saying that the Georges River herd won’t recover unless all illegal hunting is stopped, reports CTV News. A hunting ban on caribou was introduced in 2013.
Biologists from Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec, along with a representative from the Ungava Peninsula Caribou Advisory Round Table (UPCART), conducted a survey of the Georges River caribou herd in July 2016. The census of the herd showed that the population could become extirpated in less than five years.
This means that the herd will become too small to effectively recover, said the Honourable Perry Trimper, Minister of Environment and Climate Change in a released statement, according to The Camping Canuck.
The July herd census accounted for 8,838 animals, a 37 percent decline from the 2014 census which showed a population of 14,100. Overall, the Georges River caribou herd has declined 99 percent since the early 1990s when the herd had an estimated population of over 800,000 animals.
“This is tragic, not only for the ecosystem but for the aboriginal people of Labrador and Quebec who have utilised this herd as a resource,” Trimper said, adding, “Our government is now assessing next steps to ensure the herd will be protected, and we once again call on individuals who value the herd to adhere to the current hunting ban.”
The problem centers around the hunting ban
Last year, Labrador’s Innu Nation said they were not going to stop hunting caribou, despite the declining numbers. Deputy chief Simeon Tshakapesh said hunting wasn’t to blame for the decline, and conservation, taking only what you need, has always been taught by Innu elders, reports News 1130.
In 2013, when the hunting ban was introduced, the Innu Nation said it was in favor of conservation measures, but argued that a ban was going too far, especially since the Innu have been hunting the caribou for thousands of years.
At that time, the group claimed that the 650 Innu living in Natuashish and the 1,600 Innu living farther south in Sheshatshiu were only taking between 800 and 900 caribou per year. Labrador’s Inuit and Metis Nations agreed to the hunting ban.
Caribou herds have been threatened for years
In 2009, the then-provincial cabinet minister Kathy Dunderdale accused hunters of killing half of the threatened Joir River caribou herd in southern Labrador. At that rime, the herd numbered 100 animals. Members of Quebec’s Innu bands denied the minister’s accusations, adding that they had never been consulted about conservation measures.
But going back to 2007, a band of 10 Innu hunters were warned they would be prosecuted if they killed caribou in the Joir River area. And in 2004, three Quebec Innu hunters were fined $5,000 each for killing caribou from Labrador’s the Red Wine herd. They had argued that they were protecting their inherent rights to hunt the caribou.