Inuit hunters fear mine expansion
Noise from vessels impacting narwhal populations, harvesters say
Inuit hunters fear an upcoming ruling on an Arctic mine expansion could hasten the ongoing decline of a narwhal population that they rely on for food.
Harvesters from Pond Inlet on the northern coast of Baffin Island say numbers of the iconic, single-tusked whale are already a small fraction of what they were before the Mary River iron mine began operating.
They say a decision expected Friday from the Nunavut Impact Review Board could make things even worse by allowing the mine to nearly double the amount of ship traffic through nearby waters.
“We're used to seeing thousands and thousands of narwhal,” said Enooki Inuarak. “We used to go to sleep hearing the narwhals breathe.
“The last couple years, there has been barely any.”
In a letter sent last week to the Nunavut Impact Review Board, the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization says the mine is already harming their ability to harvest the important food source.
“Narwhal are less abundant ... narwhal behaviours are changing, and ... hunters are having limited success in their attempts to harvest,” the letter says.
The Mary River mine is owned by Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. The mine, considered one of the world's richest iron deposits, opened in 2015 and ships about six million tonnes of ore a year. The mine says the expansion would more than double employment at the mine to more than 1,000.
Aerial surveys conducted for Baffinland suggest summer narwhal numbers in Eclipse Sound declined to about 2,600 in 2021 from 20,000 in 2004.
Meanwhile, shipping in the area — mostly traffic to and from the mine — has increased dramatically. Josh Jones at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography used data from ship-tracking equipment to calculate nearly 245 trips were made to and from Milne Inlet, where the mine's ore is loaded, in 2021. In 2015, that figure was 42.
If the expansion is approved, Jones said the number of transits would increase to more than 450 individual transits by carriers, icebreakers and other mine-associated vessels. Baffinland said it expects just more than 400.
Other research has linked marine traffic and whale behaviour, said Kristin Westdal, Arctic science director for the environmental group Oceans North. She said vessels create underwater noise that interferes with the animal's ability to locate prey and communicate.
“That research clearly points to an increasing level of sound, sound which overlaps with that of narwhal frequencies.
Baffinland disagrees that constant, low-level disruptions are driving the narwhal away.
“Based on the expert advice of marine biologists ... with the application of the mitigation measures proposed under the Phase 2 proposal, increased shipping does not represent a significant risk to narwhal,” Baffinland spokesman Peter Akman said in an email.
He suggested the Eclipse Sound narwhal have simply migrated to Admiralty Inlet on the other side of Baffin Island. Changing ice conditions or “prey/predator dynamics” — killer whales are present in the area — may also be factors, he wrote.
That doesn't help Pond Inlet hunters, who must ask permission to hunt in another community's waters.
Baffinland has promised to impose nine-knot speed limits throughout the shipping corridor, lower than limits in whale habitats elsewhere. It also said it will reduce transits in shoulder seasons, reducing the need for icebreakers. That won't help, said Westdal. She noted that Eclipse Sound is in Tallurutiup Imanga, a national marine preserve.