Inuit

A Canadian judge in the northern province of Nunavut has curtailed the plans of several joint German-Canadian Arctic experiments after Inuit residents commented that the testing could harm marine life, sources from within the government revealed on Monday.

A judge for the territory, granted a last minute injunction this past Sunday, putting a hold on a major seismic program that was set to begin Monday in Lancaster Sound, north of Baffin Island.

The experiments, which were designed to help unearth the early history of our planet, were being carried out by Natural Resources Canada in conjunction with the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

Susan Cooper, a fellow Justice, was in complete agreement with the fears that the Inuit communities were expressing, that the experiments, including the firing of an air gun under the water to collect data, could have a negative effect on the walruses, seals and whales in the area.

While the devices would not prove fatal to the sea creatures, it could possible make them deaf, and scare them away from the area for an extended period of time, explains an attorney for the Inuit, David Crocker.

“If the Inuit are right, they could lose their livelihood, their food source, their way of life,” Crocker commented to the AFP.

The Canadian government has not commented if it will appeal the decision or not.

So it looks like, for the time being at least, that the plans for gaining knowledge of the area have been put on ice, and if an appeal isn’t made soon, the tests will need to be conducted next year instead.