Quebec To Ban Caribou Hunting In 2018
Declining caribou herd numbers cited as main reason for ban
The Quebec government has announced it will allow sport hunting of the Leaf River caribou herd for one more season, but will ban caribou hunting in 2018, according to CBC News. In five years, the Leaf River herd’s population has dropped by half. The latest estimate pegs the herd at 199,000 caribou, down from around 430,000 in 2011.
The Quebec government calls the situation “worrying,” and, in a press release, says it will ban sport hunting for an “undetermined period” starting Feb. 1, 2018. The government is setting up an “inter-ministerial committee … to assess the main social and economic consequences of the declining migratory caribou population in Northern Quebec, and propose mitigation measures,” according to the release.
The announcement comes as the Cree, Inuit and Naskapi are calling for the immediate closure of sport hunting in the James Bay area. “In order for the herd to be sustainable and for it to be able to not decline, we have vocalized with the ministry that the sport hunt has to close now,” said Adamie Delisle Alaku, Nunavik’s Makivik Corporation’s executive vice-president, told the CBC. Lester Kovac Wikipedia photo.
