While hunters in many Arctic communities were able to harvest plenty of caribou this year, biologists say the apparent abundance does not mean the caribou herd is rebounding.
The Western Arctic herd has been on the decline for years now. Today it has dropped to half its 2003 population of 490,000. In recent years, the herd has been late coming down from the North Slope, and has deviated from traditional routes, frustrating hunters in some communities.
But this year, hunters in Kotzebue and neighboring villages such as Kivalina and Noatak found caribou in abundance close by. The herd was still late arriving, said Jim Dau, caribou biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game in the region. He knows firsthand, as he and his son got skunked on their own hunt. But he said when they did show up, they did so in a big group following more traditional routes. The caribou were also in really good shape, and there were lots of calves.
"Hunters filled up in a very short time," Dau said. "It went from nothing to gangbusters."
But Dau, who has worked for some 20 years following the herd said that doesn't mean the herd is rebounding.
"It was good for hunters this year, but there is no big, radical change," he said. "Don't take that as an indication that there are good times ahead for this herd. The herd is probably still declining."
Dau said though it is difficult to nail down, factors that may have lead to the herds decline include bad weather -- either in the form of icing conditions that kept the herd from accessing food or deep snow years -- and an increased number of wolves and other predators. In normal winters, mortality rates are about 15 percent for adult cows, Dau said. In bad winter years, that number jumps to 30 percent.
But the story is not just in adult cow mortalities, he said. There has been a long-term decline in calf survival, too.
"It's like balancing a checkbook," Dau said. "There's a long-term trend of fewer and fewer caribou being deposited."
Dau said despite the decline, there are still plenty of caribou to support the subsistence harvest in the region, which is estimated at around 14,000 caribou per year.
But regulations put in place for the first time this year limit the time in the fall when you can hunt bulls -- the season closed Oct. 15 -- and when you can hunt cows. And it eliminated calf harvest all together. There is a five caribou a day limit in place as well.
Dau said he was encouraged by the active role those in the northwest have taken in drafting the regulations limiting harvest. He said most of the people he talked to wanted to find solutions and did not have an adversarial approach to the first regulations placed on subsistence caribou harvest in some 30 years.
He also said people have taken seriously the issue of caribou waste, and guides especially mandate that hunters not waste the meat once it has been harvested.
But he encouraged hunters to take it one step further and self-regulate beyond the guidelines that the state has laid out. Chances are the population is going to continue to decline and any caribou that can be left without causing hardship to the residents of the area would help the herd's cause, he said.
"Don't wait for the state to force you to take no more than 10," Dau said. "Stay ahead of the curve."
Dau said hunters understand the need to only take what is needed, but when they spend hundreds of dollars in gas to go up the river and find caribou thick, they tend to take as many as they can. If they can't use it all, they send it to relatives in Anchorage and elsewhere in the state.
"We are going to have an increasing impact on the herd through harvest," Dau said. "Hunters have been able to supply an awful lot of people out of the herd. That's a defining Inupiat value -- when you have lots, you share."
Dau said hunters need to be more selective when they pull the trigger, making sure they shoot the caribou they want. He said hunters have largely been receptive when he suggests a more measured approach to caribou harvest.
He said one challenge of the whole program is the accuracy of the numbers of caribou being harvested. The state routinely flies to several communities each year and conducts interviews with residents about their harvest. But in those communities where interviews do not take place, instituting any sort of independent reporting system has been largely unsuccessful. And as the herd gets smaller and restrictions more stringent, he expects that to become even more difficult. In the 1970s when the herd crashed, people felt reporting their true harvest would be used against them and hurt their ability to get the food they need, Dau said.
Another challenge has been the differing restrictions on federal and state lands. Dau said there is some effort underway to synchronize the restrictions to make hunting less complicated for subsistence users, but there is continued work to do in that department.
So far, however, people have participated in the conversation about how best to manage the harvest of caribou.
"At least at this stage in the decline, people are very receptive to having to do what it takes," Dau said. "It may get harder and harder to sell that, but at least at this point, one of the highlights of my career has been listening and seeing subsistence users step up to the plate. I'm really hopeful that the spirit of cooperation will continue as things get tougher biologically."
This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.