This year, biologists couldn’t count the Western Arctic Caribou Herd population, which has been drastically declining for years. However, the recent collar data showed a slightly better survival rate of cows and calves.
The Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group met this month to discuss concerns about the most recent trends in the population of the herd that residents in the Northwest Arctic and North Slope communities rely on for subsistence. The Northwest Arctic Subsistence Regional Advisory Council also met in November and discussed caribou harvests.
“With a high cost of living in our area, we have to get what we can catch,” Vern Cleveland Sr. from Noorvik said.
“Our region harvests a lot of caribou. That’s pretty much their daily staple of meat that is consumed within the region,” Kotzebue resident Mike Kramer said. “It’s getting pretty critical, and I sure do not want to see us not be able to harvest caribou in about 10 years, maybe less.”
Alex Hansen, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said that the agency couldn’t obtain an aerial photo census of the herd population this year because weather conditions interfered with flight plans. By the time the weather cleared, caribou scattered, Hansen said.
“We will work hard to get the number next year,” Hansen said.
In 2023, Fish and Game estimated that the size of the herd was 152,000 animals, 7% smaller than in 2022. Since biologists have no indication that the count changed this year, they still consider the herd population to be declining, Hansen said.
The Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group, composed of subsistence and sports hunters and scientists, considered estimating the size of the herd based on a declining trend in recent years, but they decided to not make any assumptions and keep the status of the herd the same.
“We don’t have any scientific proof so we should keep everything as is,” Cyrus Harris of Kotzebue said. “Keep it the same as last year. Hopefully they will get a count next fall.”
Fish and Game conducted a survey in June that showed a few positive signs about the herd, Hansen said.
About 71% of the collared cows had calves, just above the 70% long-term average, Hansen said. The data also showed good calf recruitment: About 22 calves per 200 adults survived and became a part of the herd. That number is higher than the long-term average of 17 calves per 200 adults, Hansen said.
The adult cow survival rate was still below average, at 75%. The estimate is slightly better than in recent years: For example, in 2022, it dropped to 69%, Hansen said. But to see growth in the population, the goal is to have the cow survival rate at 85% or above, he explained.
“The big take home (message) here is, we’re still seeing more cows die than what this herd can support if we expect to see growth,” Hansen said.
Hansen said that while weather, predators and changes in the environment affect the herd, residents can’t do anything about those factors. One of the few things that they can control is the take of the animals, and limiting the harvest of the cows is the most efficient way to protect the herd.
“Limiting cow harvest is about the only tool that we have,” Hansen said.
While the herd has been shrinking for several years in a row, Hansen said there is hope for it to rebound.
“This population is still one of the largest in the world, one of the largest in the state,” Hansen said. “So as long as we tighten our belts for a bit and allow those conditions that will allow growth within caribou herds, we could probably expect it to see a turnaround.”
To preserve the declining herd, managers recently adopted several regulations.
The Board of Game and the Federal Subsistence Board reduced the subsistence hunting limit of caribou from five caribou a day to 15 a year, only one of which can be a cow.
New regulations also affected the hunters not local to the area.
The Federal Subsistence Board closed Game Unit 23 to non-federally qualified subsistence users from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31. This closure will go away when the herd population rebounds and exceeds 200,000 caribou.
In turn, the state regulators changed from issuing general harvest tickets to nonlocal hunters to drawing tags up to 300 permits, each for one bull. This regulation will go into effect in 2025.
Hansen said that this year, Arctic Air, one of the outfitters that used to bring hunters to the Kotzebue area, left. He said that the other outfitter reported about 80 animals harvested.
“Our harvest from nonresidents went down considerably,” Hansen said.
During the meeting in November, several residents said that they still think nonresident hunting should be closed on state lands as well.
“It’s wonderful when we’re able to get closures on federal lands, when our voices are heard, but when these people are able to just go 12 feet over and they’re going on the state land, it almost feels as if we’re running around in circles,” Thomas Baker of Kotzebue said. “There needs to be some kind of clarity coming from the state of Alaska, making sure that we are protecting our subsistence resources as best we can on all land, state, federal or otherwise.”
Baker said that caribou sightings and harvest start happening in Northwest Alaska once the nonresident season is over. He said that partial closures did not stop transporters from bringing hunters; it only changed their exact location.
“Every time there is some restriction, these transporters look at it and laugh and go further north, closer to the calving grounds, really preventing caribou from coming down any further,” Baker said. “This has been and continues to be one of the biggest concerns for our community.”
Low salmon
During the November meeting, residents also discussed the dismal salmon season in the Northwest Arctic region this year, for both commercial and subsistence fishermen.
Baker said that typically, commercial fishermen in Kotzebue get between 1.5 million and 3 million pounds of chum salmon, This season it was between 30,000 and 50,000 pounds, “just a totally detrimental year for commercial fishing, which in turn means that most folks were not able to also get their subsistence catch.”
“This is the lowest I ever saw a salmon run,” said Harris who is also a retired commercial fisherman. ”We do encounter low fishing seasons, but this one was practically next to nothing at an alarming rate.”