Eskimos Fret as Climate Shifts and Wildlife Changes

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PANGNIRTUNG JOURNAL

 

Eskimos Fret as Climate Shifts and Wildlife Changes

 

September 6, 2004

PANGNIRTUNG JOURNAL

Eskimos Fret as Climate Shifts and Wildlife Changes

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

 

PANGNIRTUNG, Nunavut - At age 85, Inusiq Nasalik has

seen some changes in his day.

 

Born in an old whaling settlement, he lived in igloos

and sod houses as a child and drove a dog team to hunt

on the tundra through much of his life. Now he lives

in a comfortable house with a plush sofa in his living

room, a Westinghouse range and microwave oven in his

modern kitchen and a big stereo to play his favorite

old Eskimo songs.

 

Life is good for him, he says, but he is worried about

the changes he sees in the wildlife that surrounds

this hamlet on the shores of an icy glacier fiord just

below the Arctic circle.

 

He says the caribou are skinny, and so are the ringed

seals, whose fur has become thin and patchy. The

Arctic char that swim in local streams are covered

with scratches, apparently from sharp rocks in waters

that are becoming shallower because of climactic

shifts. The beluga whales and seals do not come around

Pangnirtung fiord as much anymore, perhaps because

increased motorboat traffic is making too much noise.

 

" Maybe this is just the way it is supposed to be, but

the animals are changing and I cannot tell you why, "

Mr. Nasalik said, between bites of raw caribou from an

animal he had just caught. " Young people now prefer to

eat young seals because they think the older seals are

more contaminated. "

 

Scientists say the problems Mr. Nasalik observes

result from climate change and the gradual increase in

contaminants like pesticides and industrial compounds

like mercury and PCB's that are transported by wind

and currents from the industrialized south and

accumulate in the fatty tissues of Arctic animals. The

people who eat such animals are also affected, and

high levels of contaminants have been found in the

breast milk of Eskimo women.

 

Mr. Nasalik and other local hunters and native elders

are sharing their observations about changing wildlife

with scientists who have come to appreciate their

expertise at natural observation and long memories of

environmental conditions in the Arctic. Researchers

are beginning to teach Eskimos, better known as Inuit

in Canada, how to collect scientific data and take

measurements of hunted animals to detect everything

from changes in the size of their organs to the

abundance of their fat.

 

Researchers from the World Wildlife Fund Canada and

Trent University recently collected the observations

of 30 local hunters in Pangnirtung and two other

Arctic communities and came to some disturbing

conclusions.

 

Arctic char, caribou and ringed seal are showing

abnormally hard livers, according to a draft of the

report that is to be released in September. Caribou

have worms in their muscles and between their joints.

The fat in Beluga whales is changing color. Hunters

across the eastern Canadian Arctic are reporting that

an increasing number of polar bears look emaciated,

probably because their hunting season has been

shortened by the shrinking ice cover.

 

The Pangnirtung fiord, for instance, formerly was

covered with hard ice between October and July, but in

the past several years residents here say it has only

been frozen between December and May.

 

The Meteorological Service of Canada reports that the

summers of 2002 and 2003 were particularly warm in the

eastern Canadian Arctic, and the last three winters

have also been unseasonably mild. The Yukon and Alaska

have been downright scorching in recent months, with

temperatures in Whitehorse reaching over 85 degrees

nine days in a row in June.

 

Even migration patterns are changing. Some say the

walrus have changed their hunting grounds, moving

farther north where it is colder. Animal behavior also

seems to be changing. Hunters say the shifts have been

most marked the last 5 to 10 years.

 

" Northern aboriginal peoples possess sophisticated

knowledge of wildlife, knowledge that sometimes is

more extensive than scientific knowledge, " the draft

report concluded. " Wildlife health abnormalities

observed included behavioral changes such as use of

different calving grounds and feeding areas and being

less timid " around humans.

 

" The caribou don't seem to notice noise anymore, " said

Jonah Kilabuk, 51, a weekend hunter and translator of

the Inuktitut language. " Either they are going deaf or

they are accustomed to the noise. You can now pass

them on your snowmobile and they don't seem to

notice. "

 

Scientists have known about the contaminants seeping

into the Arctic food chain for some time. The

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants,

an international treaty binding on 150 countries

including the United States, went into effect in May

to prohibit the production of a dozen toxic chemicals

and to bring about the destruction of existing

stockpiles.

 

The treaty has been cheered by Eskimo leaders, who

lobbied for the accord. Still, all the change has

hunters worried about the future, since so much of the

Eskimo culture is wrapped around hunting, the joys of

eating and respect for animals that borders on

worship.

 

" What will the younger generations eat? " Mr. Kilabuk

asked. " It will mean more eating of processed foods

that are already causing more diabetes. "

 

For Paulusie Veevee, a 75, an elder who started

hunting with his grandfather when he was 10, the

greatest tragedy of all is the changing habitat for

the seals that depend on the ice for reproduction.

 

" The seals have their pups in dens on the ice, " Mr.

Veevee noted. " If there isn't enough ice, where will

they have their babies - on land? That's the question

I ask myself. "

 

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company