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March 2004
Government of Canada
Environment Canada
Canadian Wildlife Service Qaquluit (Cape Searle) and Akpait (Reid Bay)
Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) studies in the 1970s identified important seabird colonies at Cape Searle (Qaquluit) and Reid Bay (Akpait), two sites approximately 100 km southeast of Qikiqtarjuaq. Through the 1980s and 1990s there was little interest in the community for attaining protection for these sites. However, in 1999, the Hamlet of Qikiqtarjuaq received support from the Nattivak Hunters and Trappers Organization (HTO), Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA), and the Qikiqtarjuaq Community Land Development Committee to reopen the discussions regarding protection of these sites as national wildlife areas (NWA).
The community voted to proceed with the work required to create a new NWA in 2000. CWS, in collaboration with the Nattivak HTO, the Hamlet, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), has now made four site visits to Cape Searle to gather baseline ecological data. A community knowledge study, led by the HTO and sponsored by WWF, has also been conducted. In June 2001 and 2002 a census and mapping project was conducted at Cape Searle, the first time ever that this site has been mapped in detail. A NWA Boundaries Committee was appointed in 2001 and their recommended boundaries are currently under review by the QIA as part of the Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement process.
Qaquluit (Cape Searle) © Mark Mallory, Canadian Wildlife Service, 2002
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