Frequently Asked Questions

Does the NWMB manage only wildlife in Nunavut?
Does the NWMB tell people how many animals they can hunt?
What kind of animals live in Nunavut?
Why do people hunt so much in Nunavut?
Is NWMB part of the government of Nunavut, or part of the government of Canada?
Why do people in Nunavut hunt a bowhead whale every two years?
Will people always hunt for food in Nunavut?
What is traditional knowledge?
Do you have to be old to have traditional knowledge?

Under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, the NWMB is responsible for the management of all wildlife in Nunavut. Wildlife is defined in the Agreement as all animals and plants. This includes all land and marine mammals, birds, fish and plants in Nunavut. That can range from a 50-tonne bowhead whale the size of a schoolbus, to miniature purple saxifrage flowers, to herds of thousands of caribou, and many other species of fauna and flora in between.

Part of our responsibilities under the Land Claim is to regulate quotas or other restrictions on wildlife harvesting in Nunavut – either by setting new quotas, removing old quotas no longer needed, or changing existing quotas. The NWMB also sets other, non-quota limitations on harvest, if necessary. Non-quota limitations include seasons and restrictions on the type of gear that may be used to harvest a particular wildlife species.

Barren-ground caribou, muskoxen, barren ground grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, arctic and red foxes, weasels, lemmings and arctic hare are among our most common land mammals. Nunavut is also home to polar bears, ringed, harp and bearded seals, walruses, and several types of arctic whales: belguas, narwhals, bowheads, and to a lesser degree, killer whales, blue whales and sperm whales. We have gyrfalcons, peregrine falcons, ptarmigans, several species of geese, tundra swans, snowy owls, many species of ducks, terns, murres, black guillemots and many other species of birds. Arctic char is probably the most common and most well-known fish species, but there are also lake trout, northern pike, arctic grayling, whitefish, burbot, arctic cod, and turbot in Nunavut waters.

Inuit have always hunted and fished to survive. They followed the migratory caribou inland in fall and winter, and returned to the coast in the summer to harvest marine mammals (seals, walrus and whales). Inuit were forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle in the 1950s and 1960s when the federal government settled them in permanent communities in order to administer government services. However, the country food, from the land is still an essential part of the diet and culture of most Inuit in Nunavut.

Neither. While we are funded by the federal government, the NWMB is an Institution of Public Government (IPG), a public body created under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NLCA), and takes its instruction from the NLCA. We are part of the overall public government of Nunavut, but we are separate from the federal and territorial governments.

This is a way for Inuit to continue a tradition that goes back almost a thousand years - by far predating the European commercial whaling practice that almost made the bowhead whale extinct. It's also a way for elders to preserve special hunting skills, by passing them on to younger people. While hunts have been held every 2 years, since 1996, the frequency of the hunts is regulated by the NWMB and is based on our understanding of the sustainable harvest levels for the different stocks of bowhead whales.

Yes, it is the hope and expectation of the NWMB and others in Nunavut that people here will always hunt for food. This forms part of the Principles and Objectives of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement with respect to Wildlife (Article 5). The cost of living here can be up to three times higher than in southern Canada, so it's too expensive to buy food only from the grocery store. As well, "country food" (the name of the traditional food we hunt here) is healthy. Marine mammals are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which combat heart disease and other ailments. Caribou meat, meanwhile, is very lean and protein-rich.

Traditional knowledge is the knowledge people have gained over the years of the environment and the world around them. Traditional knowledge is gained both by personal experience and by the passing on of information from one generation to the next.

Many experts in traditional knowledge happen to be old because younger generations no longer live "on the land" – they spend most of their days indoors in office jobs, so they don't have the intimate knowledge of the land and wildlife that their elders do.

You don't have to be aboriginal to have traditional knowledge. A white farmer in Arizona could have traditional knowledge of his farmlands, much as an Inuit hunter has traditional knowledge of the region where he lives. Traditional knowledge is often associated with aboriginal culture because native people have retained closer bonds with the environment than other urbanised societies.

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