TORNGAT WILDLIFE, PLANTS AND FISHERIES SECRETARIAT

1. TORNGAT WILDLIFE, PLANTS AND FISHERIES SECRETARIAT The Torngat Secretariat provides administrative and technical support, including research activities, to the Torngat Joint Fisheries Board and the Torngat Wildlife and Plants Co-Management Board. The two Boards were established through the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement (LILCA, 2005) and are responsible for implementing Chapters 12 and 13 of the agreement. These boards are the only boards funded on a tripartite basis in Canada, representing Federal, Provincial and Nunatsiavut government involvement. Both boards hold community consultations on a regular basis, providing an opportunity to present research results, as well as gather natural resource conservation and management concerns. Figure 1. Torngat Secretariat organizational chart • Torngat Joint Fisheries Board • LILCA: Chapter 13, Section 13.11: • 13.11.1 The Torngat Joint Fisheries Board shall make recommendations to the Minister in relation to: • the Conservation of species or stocks of Fish in the Labrador Inuit Settlement Area (LISA) listed in schedules 13-B and 13-C, Aquatic Plants and Fish Habitat in the LISA; and • the management of fisheries in the LISA, other than the Inuit Domestic Fishery and the Inuit Domestic Harvest Level, with respect to a species or stock of Fish listed in schedules 13-B and 13-C; • and shall be the primary body making such recommendations. • Torngat Wildlife and Plants Co-Management Board • LILCA: Chapter 12, Section 12.9: • 12.9.1 The Torngat Wildlife and Plants Co-Management Board shall: • establish, when necessary, Total Allowable Harvests for Non-Migratory Species of Wildlife and for Plants; • Recommend to the Minister, conservation and management measures for wildlife, plants and habitat in the LISA; • Participate in environmental assessment processes and to recommend to the Minister and the NG measures to monitor impacts of projects and undertakings on wildlife, plants and habitat; • Recommend to the Minister and the NG measures for the timely collection, analysis and sharing of data and information relevant to the implementation of Inuit rights under Chapter 12 and to the conservation and sustainable utilization of wildlife, plants and habitat 3 2 Figure 2. Map of study area Figure 3-4. Catch results 4 “Sustainable local use of natural resources is co-management’s raison d’être. But the key challenges have less to do with technical interventions, than with managing relations among people” Tyler, 2006 Feature Project: Exploratory Snow Crab Survey The Secretariat has become actively involved in snow crab research off the coast of northern Labrador. In 2009, the Secretariat conducted an exploratory snow crab resource survey north of the current commercial fishing grounds to determine abundance and distribution of commercial sized snow crab in the area. Throughout the survey, commercial sized male snow crab were recovered in small quantities, and there were no females and virtually no undersized crab found. The Secretariat intends to conduct a follow-up survey to complete units not surveyed in 2009, as well as some new units in an effort to provide information into snow crab recruitment off northern Labrador. The Secretariat hosted a “Nunatsiavut Snow Crab Workshop” in HV-GB in March, 2010 with over thirty stakeholders representing the Federal, Provincial, and Nunatsiavut governments, Nunatsiavut crab fishers, plant workers and others in attendance. Participants discussed issues such as policy options, quotas, seasons, conservation and sustainability. This feedback, combined with local and scientific information will enable the Board to make informed recommendations in the spirit of co-managing the Nunatsiavut snow crab fishery. Feature Project: Torngat Mountains Caribou The Torngat Secretariat held a workshop on Torngat caribou in November 2009, bringing together stakeholders with a vested interest and/or a considerable knowledge of caribou in northern Labrador and Quebec. Despite some research conducted over fifteen years ago, the existence of a distinct Torngat Mountains Caribou Herd has been largely debated by the scientific and management community, and relatively no scientific research has been conducted in the past fifteen years. The caribou in this region has been managed under the auspice of the George River Herd, despite assurances from resource users that there is a distinct, resident caribou herd. The Secretariat collected Inuit knowledge from Nunatsiavut and Nunavik hunters to feed into a research design for Torngat caribou. An aerial pilot study with some of these resource users took place, involving reconnaissance of traditional hunting areas. The Torngat Secretariat plans to continue research of the Torngat caribou by conducting a telemetry and aerial census project. 5 Figure 5. Results of reconnaissance by sighting group 7 6 Figure 6-7. Results of reconnaissance by location Photos by Juliana Coffey; poster design, compilation and editing by Juliana Coffey and Jennifer Mitchell, 2010