Less than 20 years ago, the herd was estimated at close to 800,000. But around the end of the Cold War it reached a tipping point. It grew too big for its range and began to collapse. The latest official estimate puts the George River population at barely 74,000 – down about 90 per cent.
“It’s their meat for most of the year,” said Darryl Shiwak, First Minister of the Nunatsiavut government, which represents the Inuit. “People have a real sense of urgency that something needs to be done.”
The specific figures are doubted by some native leaders, but the trend is clear. And the precipitous decline raises difficult questions about how to balance conservation with traditional rights – and whether it’s wise, or even possible, to stop this decline. The current situation is worrisome. Caribou go through cycles and this herd has crashed before, bottoming out about a century ago and remaining low for decades. Famine among natives has accompanied previous declines and, although that wouldn’t be allowed now, there is increasing concern over how low the caribou will go this time.
“It’s going to be devastating,” said anthropologist Stephen Loring, with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, who has done field work in Labrador with the Innu. He noted that other traditional sources of food are increasingly less available. “They’re up the creek if they don’t have caribou,” Dr. Loring said. “Country food is just a gazillion times better than anything you can get in the store.”
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/atlantic/caribou-crisis-in-labrador/article1849095/
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