To help protect the area’s fish, birds, marine mammals and people, Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. should meet a “gold standard” when shipping from its north Baffin iron mine, delegates said during the second day of the Nunavut Impact Review Board’s three-day technical meeting on the company’s $900-million proposal to expand its Mary River mine.
After sessions looking at the use of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and cumulative effects assessments on Monday, attention on Tuesday turned largely to ice-breaking and shipping.
Baffinland plans to ship out 12 million tonnes of ore annually, increasing that amount later to 30 million tonnes. Several of the Inuit representatives around the table in Iqaluit’s Cadet Hall told how Baffinland’s shipping is already having an impact.
Enookie Enuarak of Pond Inlet’s hunters and trappers organization said that last year, belugas and narwhals abandoned Eclipse Sound after the ice broke up.
Hunters say the presence of ships and icebreakers in July disturbs marine mammals and fish, as well as breaking up the ice earlier in this the season, and that this caused misery in the community of about 1,800. The disappearance of the whales was “a huge loss to our community” of food and sales of meat, maqtaaq and tusks as well as a cause of health issues, said Enuarak.
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