Plastic found inside Arctic char has Nunavut hunters fearing for local food sources

Hunters in Nunavut say they've been finding plastic inside the bellies of Arctic char — a fish that's an essential part of Inuit culture, often eaten raw, frozen or boiled. 

Bobby Greenley, chairperson of the Ekaluktutiak Hunters and Trappers Organization in Cambridge Bay, said the issue started cropping up four or five years ago. 

"We're finding it in the stomachs of the fish we're doing studies on," he said. "We're starting to get more whales around our area, they might be sucking [plastic] into their stomachs as well."

Greenley said it's bad for the animals — but bad for people's safety, too.

"It can get sucked up into people's outboard [boat] motors and cause them damage. Next thing you know, you're rescuing people who are broken down in the middle of the ocean."

Billy Merkosak, a hunter from Pond Inlet, has seen plastic inside fish too. It's a discovery that's "very scary" and leaves him wondering about the health of his community. 

Scientists say it's hard to know how much plastic pollution is in the Arctic, but a recent study published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment takes a look at where it's coming from and what can be done about it. 

Jennifer Provencher, a scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, and one of the report's authors, says plastic is coming from a mix of local and international sources — sometimes even carried north by migrating animals. 

Provencher says consumer plastic (like food packaging) and industrial plastic (like nurdles or pellets used to make plastic things) have been found inside migratory birds in the Arctic.

"In Nunavut, there's no real big shipping lanes ...  there's no big plastic factories. So we do know that at least some of the plastics in the Arctic are kind of being subject to long-range transport," she said. 

The study says items in the Arctic were recognized as coming from Russian and Scandinavian trawlers and also from the UK, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and the U.S. 

But it also comes from local sources — like dumps.

"There's lots of reports of plastic bags and things kind of blowing out of those landfills," said Provencher, pointing to the dump in Iqaluit as an example of a cause for concern. 

Kevin Kalluak, chairperson of the Arviat Hunters and Trappers Organization, says leaving beverage containers along popular trails and hunting grounds near Arviat appears to be "becoming a habit."