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Nunavik hunters land first bowhead whale in Hudson Strait in over a century

Canadian Press Article online since August 14th 2008, 23:00
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Nunavik hunters land first bowhead whale in Hudson Strait in over a century
Peter Qisiiq, a resident of the community of Kangiqsujuaq, carves up a male bowhead whale measuring 48 feet 10 inches and weighing approximately 49 tons, in Akulivik, a northern village of Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Sunday Aug. 10, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Justin Nobel
MONTREAL - Standing at the edge of his canoe over the frigid waters of the Arctic, Noah Annahatak raised his arm and thrust his harpoon into a 48-ton beast twice the length of his boat.
The Inuit hunter's strike helped land the first bowhead whale caught off the shores of northern Quebec in more than a century, fusing a long-sought link to his people's past.
"At the beginning I was really nervous because it's a huge animal," said Annahatak, 42, an expert hunter from Kangiqsujuaq, a seaside village in the province's Nunavik region.
"He was right underneath us and I (thought), 'Holy cow, how are we going to kill it?'
"We were very close to the animal, actually we were touching it with the canoe when we struck at the beginning."
The 20-hunter team, who were trained by counterparts in Nunavut, harvested the male bowhead on Aug. 9.
From the launch of Annahatak's first grenade-tipped harpoon, the hunters killed the whale with shotguns and traditional weapons in 30 minutes.
It then took about seven hours for the boats to tow the 15-metre behemoth 20 kilometres from the Hudson Strait to a beach outside town.
Annahatak said news of the catch brought many people in the town of 500 to tears.
The rush of emotion also reached across Nunavik, where whale meat will be distributed to its 14 villages.
"They're so proud of the hunters and for the community," Annahatak told The Canadian Press.
"Even my grandfather never hunted bowhead."
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans issued Nunavik a hunting permit last month for one bowhead to be caught this year, with Kangiqsujuaq being chosen.
Government scientists suggest bowheads in the eastern Arctic are as numerous as they were during the days of commercial whaling.
In 1996, the federal department reopened the bowhead hunt in Nunavut (then part of the Northwest Territories).
Two catches are permitted in Nunavut this year, said Patrick Vincent, the regional director for fisheries management.
"We identified that there was a sufficient number of whales to allow three hunts in Nunavut and Nunavik," said Vincent, whose department sent four people to monitor the hunt.
He said the blast from the harpoon's penthrite grenade stuns the animal, ensuring a more humane kill.
"It was a very rapid hunt, so it is very unlikely that the animal actually suffered," Vincent said.
Kangiqsujuaq bylaw officer Stevie Qumaaluk has been shuttling people to the beach all week, where villagers and visitors from other Nunavik communities were busy butchering the whale.
He described passenger reactions when they first see the great beast.
"Overwhelming, crying, so proud," Qumaaluk said.
"I still feel it, I'm about to cry myself. It's not just for our community, it's for all of Nunavik."
The baleen whales can live up to 200 years and grow as long as 20 metres.
The slow-moving bowhead, which is still hunted in the western Arctic, is considered one of the easier whales to catch.
They were hunted extensively in the 17th and 18th centuries.
By the early 20th century, the mammals had been harvested to the brink of extinction.
As late as 2005, scientists figured there were only about 5,000.
But the Department of Fisheries and Oceans released an estimate last spring suggesting there are more than 14,000 bowheads in the eastern Arctic.
These numbers reversed concern in the scientific community and backed years of Inuit claims that eastern Arctic seas contain large bowhead populations.
Jimmy Johannes of Nunavik's hunters, fishermen and trappers association said elders have been calling for the return of the bowhead hunt since the 1970s.
He said elders feared future generations would never know where they came from.
"We feel more whole than we've ever been," Johannes said from his office in Kuujjuaq.
"This is reclaiming something that was from our ancestors."
He said bowhead ribs were once used as frames for shelters, while muktuk - the whale's skin and blubber - was an important part of the Inuit diet.
"It's delicious," he said. "Very much like the beluga. Rubbery but tasty."
Annahatak, meanwhile, says he will never forget his historic kill.
"A lot of people are amazed by seeing that animal," he said. "There's some people with tears. It's unreal.
"It's not a game, it's our life, the way we live."
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