6 September 2004Clifford KraussInternational Herald Tribune
At age 85, Inusiq Nasalik has seen some change 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 Arctic 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, he says, but he is worried by the changes he sees in the wildlife that live near this Canadian hamlet on the shores of a glacier fjord 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 full of scratches, apparently from sharp rocks in waters that are becoming more shallow because of shrinking glaciers. The beluga whales and seals don't come around Pangnirtung fjord as frequently 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," Nasalik said between bites of raw caribou from an animal he had killed. "Young people now prefer to eat young seals because they think the older seals are more contaminated."The problems Nasalik observes, scientists say, are due to climatic change and the gradual increase in contaminants - such as pesticides and industrial compounds like mercury and PCBs - that accumulate in the fatty tissues of arctic animals after wind and water transport them from the industrialized south. The people who eat such animals also are affected, and high levels of contaminants have been found in the breast milk of Eskimo women.Nasalik and other local hunters and native elders are sharing their observations about changing wildlife with scientists who have come to appreciate their expertise in natural observation and their long memories of environmental conditions in the Arctic. Researchers are beginning to teach Eskimos, better known as Inuit in Canada, how to collect data and take measurements of the animals they hunt to detect changes in everything from organ size to fat accumulation.Researchers from World Wildlife Fund Canada and Trent University recently collected observations of 30 local hunters in Pangnirtung and two other Arctic communities and arrived at disturbing conclusions.Arctic char, caribou and ringed seal are showing abnormally hard livers, according to a draft of a report that will be released this month. 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 fjord, for instance, formerly was covered with hard ice between October and July, but residents here say that in the last several years it has been frozen only 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 past three winters have also been unseasonably mild. The Yukon Territory and Alaska have been downright scorching in recent months, with temperatures in Whitehorse in the Yukon reaching 85 degrees Fahrenheit, or 29 degrees Celsius, nine consecutive days in June.Even migration patterns are changing. Some say the walruses 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 notable in the past five to 10 years."Northern Aboriginal peoples possess sophisticated knowledge of wildlife, knowledge that sometimes is more extensive than scientific knowledge," the draft reported. "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 for some time that contaminants are seeping into the arctic food chain. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an international treaty binding 150 countries, took effect in May and prohibits the production of a dozen toxic chemicals and requires that existing stockpiles be destroyed.Eskimo leaders who lobbied for it applaud the accord. But the recent changes still have hunters worried about the future because so much of the Eskimo culture and lifestyle revolves around hunting, the joys of eating and a profound respect for animals."What will the younger generations eat?" Kilabuk said. "It will mean more eating of processed foods that are already causing more diabetes."For Paulusie Veevee, 75, who started hunting with his grandfather when he was 10, the most distressing change is the shifting habitat for the seals that depend on the ice for reproduction."The seals have their pups in dens on the ice," Veevee said. "If there isn't enough ice, where will they have their babies - on land? That's the question I ask myself."
