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Press Release




Migratory caribou sport hunting closure

Québec City, December 21, 2016 – Luc Blanchette, Québec's Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, has announced that sport hunting of migratory caribou will be closed in Québec as from February 1, 2018, for an undetermined period, in order to foster the sustainability of the species.

Sport hunting of the George River herd was closed in 2012 due to the significant decline in numbers. Since then, the Leaf River herd has been the only one to sustain sport hunting and Aboriginal harvesting in Québec. According to an inventory carried out in the summer of 2016, Leaf River numbers have also continued to decline and the herd now comprises less than 199,000 animals.

"The situation of the Leaf River caribou herd is worrying," said Minister Blanchette. "Our Government therefore has the responsibility to apply management measures that will foster the sustainability of a species of considerable importance to Northern ecosystems and Aboriginal communities in Québec."

A Government inter-ministerial committee will also be set up to assess the main social and economic consequences of the declining migratory caribou population in Northern Québec, and propose mitigation measures. The committee will consult the partners likely to be affected by future decision, through task forces.

The Québec Government will work closely with the federal government and the government of Newfoundland-and-Labrador to promote the sustainability of caribou populations in Ungava. It will also continue to monitor the herds and will continue to work closely with the Caribou Ungava research group on its ongoing studies of migratory caribou.

The Cree, Inuit and Naskapi nations will also monitor their own harvests, in accordance with their undertakings. Their contribution is vital in gathering the data needed to ensure sound herd management in the coming years.

The Leaf River herd management plan is currently being prepared in collaboration with the Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Coordinating Committee, and the main wildlife management partners should be consulted during the process.

Between now and the closure of caribou sport hunting on February 1, 2018, the conditions in force for the 2017-2018 fall and winter hunting seasons will be as stated below.

Summary of sport hunting conditions in force in 2017-2018

Zone 22A

Maintenance of the sport hunting closure for 2017-2018.
For other zones

Bag limit of one caribou per licence, with the option for hunters to purchase two licences.
Provincial bag limit set at two caribou per hunter per year.
Zone 22B

Total of 617 licences issued.
Hunting period starts on December 1, 2017 and ends on January 31, 2018.
Maintenance of the rule prohibiting the killing of antlerless caribou and caribou with antlers measuring less than 15 cm.
Maintenance of the rule prohibiting sport hunting in the exclusion corridor on Category III land on either side of the Chisasibi road.
Zone 23 West

Total of 749 licences issued.
Hunting period starts on August 15, 2017 and ends on October 4, 2017.
For a hunter who purchases a second permit for the same zone, maintenance of the rule prohibiting the killing of more than one caribou with antlers measuring more than 40 cm above the top of the head.
For information on the MFFP and to learn more about its activities and achievements, visit mffp.gouv.qc.ca and the following social media pages:

Enjoy your wolves.

They better quit wringing their hands, and develop a good helicopter aerial gunning program for wolves. We could show them how.

The wolves have been there as long as the caribou have. If wolves alone were the problem, the caribou would have been gone long ago.

This!!!!

The only reason for me going to Quebec is gone.

It takes some mighty F'ed up conservation oversite for Quebec to run out of caribou.

When I was last there, 2002/2003, the Leaf and George rivers herds were estimated at 1.3 million. Now I hear 350k. Wolfs cannot be the sole cause, disease, habitat changes, subsistence hunting and who knows what else. It is a sad story that the greatest wildlife migration in North America had declined 75% in a dozen years and biologist don't know why. In 2002 I watched and filmed upwards of 12,000 caribou stream through our camp in a two day span. I'll never forget it. I chased caribou on foot just for the fun of running with them. I stood beside a tree where they came out of a river crossing and tried to touch them as they passed within three feet of me. Got wet when they shook off like a dog. One of my top three outdoor experiences.

Caribou everywhere are notoriously cyclic. It takes mismanagement to let the herds get too big and worse management when they start heading down.

Predators are not an issue when the herds are at their peaks, but the wolves cycle with the caribou and when they caribou crash the wolves have a huge impact and keep the populations low for a very long bottom to the cycle

This^^^^

An additional contributory factor of what SD posted, is that it takes a long, long time for overgrazed (if they are) lichen to come back.. I believe the average "natural" cycle of caribou herds is on the order of about 70 years.

Or you Quebec folks could just put in a pregnant-cows-only season for 3 1/2 months a year, mid October to Feb 1, like they did in GMU 23 here in Alaska "to slow the decline of the herd".

That should fix it. If you figure out how, PM me.... (Yes, I'm still beating that horse!)

The referenced GMU23 Western Arctic Caribou Herd, by the way, was estimated at 213,000 last summer, with good recruitment and heavier than average calf weights, up from 200,000 the year before. It must be working....???

^^ estimated being the key phrase here,sorta like unemployment #'s ?

+1

Oh well...

This sucks. I never got to go but always wanted to. Another opportunity missed.

I'd want to know the subsistence/aboriginal kill numbers first and foremost. From there, one might figure out what the wolves are doing.

But hey, this is all what the liberals have wanted to happen for a long time anyway. Enough "natural predation" to crash population numbers, and then eliminate sport hunting.

I've hunted the Leaf River in the early '90's. A wonderful part of the planet for sure. The idea that a huge herd has dwindled is sad indeed but I think the cyclic nature of caribou-while not understood-is certainly recognized. The problem is a lot more complicated than predators-human or otherwise. An incredibly complex ecosystem is involved.

In Inuit lore the wolf is what saved the caribou to begin with-the importance of a predator/prey relationship has been recognized for a long time.

I would have liked to go back to Quebec to hunt, I'm glad that I made the trip not just for the hunting but for the fishing and all the wonderful things I had the chance to see.

Well, Caribou hunts should increase in price about 15-20% everywhere else that still has a huntable population.

Not one person commenting on this mentioned the real reason. Caribou populations are in decline all over the arctic, and the reason is obvious and measurable. The climate is changing. Drastically!
Temperatures in recent decades have increased all over the arctic. Much more than at lower latitudes. Caribou time their migrations ( using light intensity and day length) to take advantage of the best new nutritious growth of forage during calving and nursing. But for the last couple decades or so, by the time the herds reach the calving grounds, the forage is over-mature and already going to seed. In their more southerly wintering grounds, the drier hotter summers have allowed many more fires which have burned vast areas of taiga forest. The caribou moss which takes as long to grow as the trees do is gone from much of their winter range - burnt and not coming back for fifty to a hundred years or so.
I have several friends who are biologists working in the North. My son is a wildfire manager working professionally in the north. They all see it. Climate change is here, it is more pronounced in the north, and the effects are obvious. Climate change is not a conspiracy or propaganda from tree huggers. Denying its happening or blaming wolves will not bring the caribou back.

What a bunch of dramatic and wrong bullshit!

Alaska caribou are not in decline in the majority of this state.

Tapping out a lengthy response on my phone is not going to happen, but realize cRibou eat lichen, almost exclusively. Please tell me what it looks like when it goes to seed...

Unreal stupidity abounds!