Day 3: Baffin Island: We arrive

Today started very early in the jail hostel in Ottawa. We awoke at just about 4:45 and got all ready to leave for Iqaluit. We had a two-hour wait at the airport, then a three-hour flight plus lots of sitting in our day. Once we were close to Iqaluit we started to see our first sights of the sea ice. It started first as chunks here and there, then its size grew and soon it was ice pack with giant icebergs scattered around the sea.

The ice is such a vital part of the communities here on Baffin Island. Each living organism depends on the form of the ice. Humans, bears, and seals live and hunt on and under the ice. Each year as global climate change continues to have a greater effect on the polar regions the hunting seasons have been getting shorter.
Dalen and I were talking to a student of the Nunavut Sivuniksavut school in Ottawa about hunting rules and regulations in the area of Baffin we are traveling to and this is what he had to say.

“Hunting is a huge part of the life of the Inuit people. We are allowed and almost required to hunt whenever we need or want to. The only real rules are surrounding the polar bears. Each town will have a certain amount of bears that they are allowed to hunt. If the allowed number of bears is fourteen the first four are fair game for anyone in the town. The next five are either given to any elders that want them or raffled off to the town. The last five are for outside hunters to buy and come and hunt.”


The Inuit people of Baffin Island see hunting as a way of life not a sport. After talking to this student I found one major difference between the way he thinks and we, in the U.S. do. For myself and most hunters from the States when we hunt successfully we say we “shot, killed, or harvested” the animal, but for the Inuit its always “caught” never killed. I feel that they have a greater respect for the animals they catch. We still have lots to learn about the communities we are now in. It will be a great adventure and we will have much more to share.

Until Tomorrow,

Dalen and Jeff

Thoughts from Dalen:

We started today at Ottawa and ended in Iqualuit, on Baffin Island. It actually feels that we are here, finally months of planning and hard work have paid off, and we are in the high Arctic. The plane over to Iqualuit took three hours; however the time was well spent (mostly sleeping). When we landed we were in a new place, the Island of Baffin.