Data from nine returned caribou questionnaires and 13 household interviews are available for Nelson Lagoon. Interviewed Nelson Lagoon residents reported that they take caribou during two times of the year, first in the fall during August and September, and again in the winter between January and March. This matches the results of the mail-out questionnaire for the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons, which show most hunting effort occurring in August, and again in January, February, and March ('Fables 10, 11). In the fall, Nelson Lagoon caribou hunters typically travel up. the David River by skiffs or, in recent years, drive pickup trucks and ATVs along the ocean beach south to the Black Hills or the drill pad. In the latter areas, ATVs are often used to travel on to the tundra in order to approach the animals more closely and to transport caribou meat back to the pickup trucks (cf. Tables 12, 13). Winter hunting usually occurs near the drill pad and the Black Hills. The David River often freezes in the winter, precluding hunting by skiff.
Village hunters estimated that the "typical"'annual harvest of caribou was 70 animals in the early and mid 1980s, but past harvests were estimated to have been as high as 150 caribou for the village. These hunters reported that, typically, they take two caribou in the fall and two more in the winter. The nine households that returned questionnaires reported a take of 29 caribou in 1985-86 (3.2 per hunter), for an expanded community total of 58 animals. For the August 1986 to March 1987 season, the these households took 19 caribou (1.9 per hunter) for an expanded total of 38 (Table 5).
The expanded total for the interviewed households for the study year of October 1986 through September 1987 is 53 caribou (Table 14). Eight of the 13 interviewed households (61.5 percent) took caribou in 1986-87, with an average take of 4.75 animals per successful household. On average, each hunter took 3.17 caribou. Interviewed households noted that caribou meat is distributed widely in the community, especially to nonhunting households, with 76.9 percent of the households receiving gifts of caribou during the study year.
Caribou is an especially important resource to residents of Nelson Lagoon because of the community's remote location. Most imported food and other supplies arrive by barge at Port Moller. There
While there is variation from one family to the next in the number of caribou taken and consumed, it was suggested that virtually all families had some caribou during the year and that more subsistence-oriented families consume as many as four animals during the year (Langdon 1982:106).
This report does not estimate the number of "more subsistence-oriented families" or an annual caribou harvest by Sand Point. Questionnaire results suggest an average harvest of about 0.8 caribou per household in 1985-'86 and a decline to about 0.5 caribou per household the following year. Langdon's data suggest that caribou hunting is a specialized activity at Sand Point (as at False Pass).
More information is available for King Cove. Based on interviews conducted in 1981, Langdon (1982:173) reported that: Four caribou was the median response of eight King Cove fishermen whom were asked how many caribou they needed to get through the winter. In total pounds, caribou is probably the major subsistence item in the diet.
· Braund et al. (1986) conducted interviews with 33 King Cove households (25.6 percent) regarding caribou harvests for 1984-85 hunting year. The average take of these households was four caribou (the seasonal limit at the time). It is also stated (Braund et al. 1986:7-38) that "four caribou per household is the average yearly harvest for King Cove residents." If expanded to the entire community (e.g. Braund et al. 1986: 7-19, Table 7-4) this is 516 caribou, which greatly exceeds the estimates for the following year (168) based upon the questionnaire returns, which found a caribou harvest of about one per household and 3.7 for households who hunted. Braund's sample of interviewed households was not randomly selected, and the interviewing on subsistence activities evidently targeted on active hunting and fishing households (cf. "typical" annual harvest. The expanded take for the 1985-86 season was 58, and for 1986-87 was 38. The 13 interviewed households took 38 caribou in a 12 month period in 1986-1987 (which does not match exactly with the hunting year covered by the questionnaire), about .8 per person, which expands to 53 animals for the entire community. Thus, it is likely that caribou harvests at Nelson Lagoon have ranged from about 0.5 per person to about one per person depending upon the availability of the animals. Hunters have taken on average between two and four animals annually.
Comparisons with Other Herds One method to assess the reliability of estimates of caribou harvests by residents of GMU 9D and Unimak Island is to compare these estimates with those of communities using the northern Alaska Peninsula herd in GMUs 9E and 9C. Like four of the five communities under discussion in this report, most the communities of GMUs 9E and 9C have mixed subsistence/cash economies including commercial fishing, substantial quantities of local wild resources for subsistence use, and similar mixes of wild foods with caribou and salmon predominating (Wright et al 1985; Walker et al 1988).
Table 15 summarizes recent harvest survey data about caribou harvests by local communities using the southern and northern Alaska Peninsula herds. The highest per capita caribou harvests, at about one to 1.5 animals per person, have been recorded for the Bristol Bay drainage communities of Port Heiden, Pilot Point, Ugashik, Egegik, and South Naknek that use the northern herd. In these villages, caribou account for up to 60 percent of the annual subsistence take (Fall and Morris 1987). This is a higher harvest level than recorded for the GMU 9D and GMU 10 villages. Villages on the Pacific drainage side of the Alaska Peninsula such as Chignik Lake, Perryville, and Ivanof Bay, reported a harvest of about .25 to .5 caribou per person for_ 1984. This is similar, or slightly higher than, the 1985-86 harvest rates for False Pass, King Cove, and Sand Point, but notably higher than the SAPCH subsistence harvests for the 1986-87 hunting year.
In summary, these comparisons suggest that in the early and mid 1980s, villages using the SAPCH for subsistence harvested caribou at a similar or slightly lower per capita level compared to Pacific drainage villages that use the NAPCH. Bristol Bay drainage villages using the northern herd harvest caribou at a higher per capita level. The questionnaire data for the 1986-87 hunting year suggest, however, that the GMU 9D villages harvested caribou'at a much lower rate than the Alaska Peninsula communities directly to the north and east.
Conclusions This report has summarized recent information about subsistence uses of the Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd. Some of the major findings include the following:
1. Caribou hunting is a common, consistent activity in the five communities of Cold Bay, False Pass, King Cove, Nelson Lagoon, and Sand Point, supplying a notable portion of the subsistence harvests.
2. Hunting caribou is a fairly specialized activity, with skilled hunters in a portion of the households supplying meat to a much larger segment of the community. This is clearly the case at False Pass and Nelson Lagoon, and is probably the pattern at King Cove and Sand Point as well.
3. 4. 3. In the early 1980s, active households in Sand Point and King Cove reported harvesting about four caribou per year. In False Pass and Nelson Lagoon, at least, some hunters who supplied several families with meat, took more than four caribou annually. According to the questionnaire results, the average harvest per hunter declined from about two caribou per year in 1985-86 to about one in 1986-87. But average harvests per hunter in the smaller communities remained higher: about 2.4 caribou for False Pass hunters in 1987-88 and about 3.2 per hunter at Nelson Lagoon in 1986-87.
5. 6. 4. Virtually all caribou hunting by these communities in the 1980s occurred in GMU 9D and GMU 10 and targeted the Southern Alaska Peninsula Caribou Herd. 5. Harvest ticket returns are not an accurate indicator of local harvests, but primarily report the harvest of non-local residents. Local harvests were about 537 in 1985-86 and 289 in 1986-87, based upon questionnaire returns. Management biologists estimated unreported harvests of 500-700 and 300-500 for those same two years respectively. In comparison, reported, mostly non-local harvests were 345 in 1985-86 and 56 in 1986-87.
7. 8. 6. The questionnaire results suggest that harvests (total and per hunter) fell between 1985-86 and 1986-87, probably as a result of lower caribou numbers and subsequent season changes. This decline has also been documented by harvest ticket returns for non-local hunters.
9. 10. In conclusion, this summary has shown that use of caribou is a major part of the pattern of wild resource harvests of the five communities of Cold Bay, False Pass, King Cove, Nelson Lagoon, and Sand Point. The future of these traditional uses depends on the health of the herd. This will require, in part, data on local harvest levels for future management of the herd and collaboration between subsistence hunters and the Department of Fish and Game.