Post by IAMCAPER on Dec 13, 2005 22:58:13 GMT -4
An unchecked slaughter of the moose herd in the Cape Breton Highlands has native leaders searching for solutions.
Charlie Dennis, executive director of the Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission, said Friday the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, based in Eskasoni, has been instructed by the Assembly of Nova Scotia Chiefs to come up with a proper management plan for the native moose hunt.
A co-ordinator, yet to be hired, will help draft a plan and will visit the 13 native bands in the coming months to hear their concerns and recommendations about what can be done.
“We haven’t ruled out a tagging system,” Dennis said, but the communities might have an answer.
“Elders especially were complaining to the councils that the mistreatment of the moose — the way they were being harvested and sold for a profit — was unacceptable to them.”
Dennis said it is going to take time to educate people to make them realize the moose population on the mainland has collapsed.
“We are trying to develop a conservation officer program, a multi-disciplinary force which would work on the Bras d’Or Lakes enforcing the fishery side or enforcing the wildlife act in the highlands.”
The largest and oldest Atlantic Canada outdoor magazine, Eastern Woods & Waters, detailed a disturbing list of incidents involving aboriginal and non-aboriginal hunters in this week’s publication, alleging the aboriginal hunt is out of control.
“Truckloads of non-aboriginals, accompanied by perhaps a single aboriginal, sometimes just an elderly woman, are patrolling the highlands and shooting moose from vehicles, often at night,” said publisher Jim Gourlay.
There have been reports of hunters using night-vision goggles to track their prey, he said.
The magazine, based in Dartmouth, is running a two-part series on the issue, the sequel to appear in its January/February edition.
Native leaders, Department of Natural Resources, Aboriginal Affairs and the Made in Nova Scotia Process Group met in Truro Friday to discuss the problem.
Gourlay said most people he talked to had no idea the problem was so extensive.
“This is a small group — a minority of aboriginals and a larger group of non-aboriginals — in most cases these people are poachers, ne’er-do-wells and petty criminals,” because that is who is being charged, he said.
Non-aboriginal hunters are accompanying aboriginals on their hunts and being charged $500 for a moose, Gourlay added.
The Supreme Court of Canada, about 10 years ago, gave First Nations people the right to fish and hunt for subsistence food purposes.
Tony Nette, manager of wildlife resources with the Department of Natural Resources, agrees abuse of moose hunting is a big problem carried out by a few natives and a lot more non-native hunters.
“Hunters are up there riding ATVs, rifles slung over their shoulders, or hunting from the back of a pickup . . ., there are an awful lot of unethical practices going on,” he said.
“The answer to the problem for First Nations will have to come from within,” one that will come about through a collaborative effort, said Nette, who explained it’s very complex involving federal and provincial governments and First Nations communities.
Nette agreed with the magazine publication that the abuse of the moose hunt involves very few people with little coming back to the native communities.
Gourlay said the problem is so blatant he read an advertisement that appeared in a Cape Breton community newspaper offering the moose service to hunters.
Last August, a Yarmouth County man hunting moose at Cheticamp Lake near Wreck Cove, died in a hunting accident.
Nette said now is the time to get the regulations in place, to have good management practices while the moose population is healthy in Cape Breton. He says illegal hunting is concentrated in the Hunter’s Mountain and Meat Cove areas of Victoria County.
Nette said in the early years when the courts confirmed native fishing and hunting rights, a tagging system had good control and everybody abided by the rules of the hunt.
“At first it wasn’t a big problem and everybody seemed to go up there and harvest for food and ceremonial (purposes), but what happens when there is no control there is always somebody who will take advantage of a situation.
“People just didn’t realize we had a major problem in the highlands and it kind of flowed into a free-for-all.”
Charlie Dennis, executive director of the Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission, said Friday the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, based in Eskasoni, has been instructed by the Assembly of Nova Scotia Chiefs to come up with a proper management plan for the native moose hunt.
A co-ordinator, yet to be hired, will help draft a plan and will visit the 13 native bands in the coming months to hear their concerns and recommendations about what can be done.
“We haven’t ruled out a tagging system,” Dennis said, but the communities might have an answer.
“Elders especially were complaining to the councils that the mistreatment of the moose — the way they were being harvested and sold for a profit — was unacceptable to them.”
Dennis said it is going to take time to educate people to make them realize the moose population on the mainland has collapsed.
“We are trying to develop a conservation officer program, a multi-disciplinary force which would work on the Bras d’Or Lakes enforcing the fishery side or enforcing the wildlife act in the highlands.”
The largest and oldest Atlantic Canada outdoor magazine, Eastern Woods & Waters, detailed a disturbing list of incidents involving aboriginal and non-aboriginal hunters in this week’s publication, alleging the aboriginal hunt is out of control.
“Truckloads of non-aboriginals, accompanied by perhaps a single aboriginal, sometimes just an elderly woman, are patrolling the highlands and shooting moose from vehicles, often at night,” said publisher Jim Gourlay.
There have been reports of hunters using night-vision goggles to track their prey, he said.
The magazine, based in Dartmouth, is running a two-part series on the issue, the sequel to appear in its January/February edition.
Native leaders, Department of Natural Resources, Aboriginal Affairs and the Made in Nova Scotia Process Group met in Truro Friday to discuss the problem.
Gourlay said most people he talked to had no idea the problem was so extensive.
“This is a small group — a minority of aboriginals and a larger group of non-aboriginals — in most cases these people are poachers, ne’er-do-wells and petty criminals,” because that is who is being charged, he said.
Non-aboriginal hunters are accompanying aboriginals on their hunts and being charged $500 for a moose, Gourlay added.
The Supreme Court of Canada, about 10 years ago, gave First Nations people the right to fish and hunt for subsistence food purposes.
Tony Nette, manager of wildlife resources with the Department of Natural Resources, agrees abuse of moose hunting is a big problem carried out by a few natives and a lot more non-native hunters.
“Hunters are up there riding ATVs, rifles slung over their shoulders, or hunting from the back of a pickup . . ., there are an awful lot of unethical practices going on,” he said.
“The answer to the problem for First Nations will have to come from within,” one that will come about through a collaborative effort, said Nette, who explained it’s very complex involving federal and provincial governments and First Nations communities.
Nette agreed with the magazine publication that the abuse of the moose hunt involves very few people with little coming back to the native communities.
Gourlay said the problem is so blatant he read an advertisement that appeared in a Cape Breton community newspaper offering the moose service to hunters.
Last August, a Yarmouth County man hunting moose at Cheticamp Lake near Wreck Cove, died in a hunting accident.
Nette said now is the time to get the regulations in place, to have good management practices while the moose population is healthy in Cape Breton. He says illegal hunting is concentrated in the Hunter’s Mountain and Meat Cove areas of Victoria County.
Nette said in the early years when the courts confirmed native fishing and hunting rights, a tagging system had good control and everybody abided by the rules of the hunt.
“At first it wasn’t a big problem and everybody seemed to go up there and harvest for food and ceremonial (purposes), but what happens when there is no control there is always somebody who will take advantage of a situation.
“People just didn’t realize we had a major problem in the highlands and it kind of flowed into a free-for-all.”