Marine Mammal Regulations (SOR/93-56)

8 No person shall attempt to kill a marine mammal except in a manner that is designed to kill it quickly.

9 No person shall fish for a marine mammal without having on hand the equipment that is necessary to retrieve it.

• 10 (1) No person who kills or wounds a marine mammal shall

  • (a) fail to make a reasonable effort to retrieve it without delay; or

  • (b) subject to section 33.1, abandon or discard it.

• (2) No person who kills a cetacean or walrus shall waste any edible part of it.

11 [Repealed, SOR/2018-126, s. 7]

Notice that Fishing Quota has been Reached

12 Where an annual fishing quota fixed by these Regulations has been reached, a fishery officer shall notify the persons affected or likely to be affected by one or more of the methods set out in subsection 7(1) of the Fishery (General) Regulations.

Sale and Transportation

• 13 (1) Subject to subsection (2), no person shall buy, sell, trade or barter the edible parts of a cetacean or walrus.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply in respect of buying, selling, trading or bartering by

  • (a) an Indian or Inuk, other than a beneficiary, within the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Quebec or Newfoundland and Labrador; or

  • (b) a beneficiary, if the purchase, sale, trade or barter is carried out in accordance with the terms of the agreement under which the beneficiary is enrolled.

14 No person shall buy, sell, trade, barter or possess a narwhal tusk unless the licence under the authority of which the narwhal was taken is attached to the tusk.

15 The Minister shall, on application, issue a marine mammal transportation licence

• (a) authorizing a person to take or carry edible marine mammal parts from one province to another for the personal use of that person or the members of that person’s family;

• (b) in respect of non-edible marine mammal parts; or

• (c) in respect of any marine mammal or marine mammal parts to be used for experimental, scientific, educational or public display purposes.

• 16 (1) Subject to subsection (2), no person shall take or carry marine mammals or marine mammal parts from one province to another except under the authority of a marine mammal transportation licence issued by the Minister.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply

  • (a) to a person who fishes for marine mammals in one province and resides in another province and who is taking or carrying his catch to his place of residence;

  • (b) in respect of seals or seal parts taken from any of Sealing Areas 4 to 33; or

  • (c) to a beneficiary who is transporting any marine mammal or marine mammal parts in accordance with the Agreement referred to in paragraph (c) of the definition beneficiary.

Records and Reporting

• 17 (1) Every person who is authorized under these Regulations to fish for cetaceans or walrus shall keep a record for a period of two years of any cetacean or walrus taken and shall produce that record for examination when requested to do so by a fishery officer.

• (2) The record referred to in subsection (1) shall contain the time and place at which the cetacean or walrus was taken and the species, sex and colour of the cetacean or walrus.

PART IICetaceans

General

17.1 In this Part, strike means to wound a cetacean but be unable to retrieve it from the water.

18 No person shall fish for a beluga calf, bowhead calf or narwhal calf or for an adult beluga, bowhead whale or narwhal that is accompanied by a calf.

19 No person shall fish for cetaceans with a firearm unless the person uses

• (a) a rifle and bullets that are not full metal-jacketed that produce a muzzle energy of not less than 1,500 foot pounds; or

• (b) a shotgun and rifled slugs that produce a muzzle energy of not less than 1,500 foot pounds.

Beluga

20 No person shall fish for beluga in the St. Lawrence River, the Saguenay River or any of their tributaries or in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

21 No person shall fish for beluga in an area described in column I of an item of Schedule II

• (a) during the close time set out in column II of that item; or

• (b) after notice has been given by a fishery officer that the annual fishing quota set out in column III of that item has been reached.

Bowhead Whales

22 No person shall fish for bowhead whales in the waters described in column I of an item of the table to this section

• (a) during the close time set out in column II of that item; or

• (b) after notice has been given by a fishery officer that the annual fishing quota set out in column III of that item has been reached.

  Item	Column I	Column II	Column III
  	Waters	Close Time	Annual Fishing Quota
  1	The waters of the Beaufort Sea adjacent to the coasts of the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories that are enclosed by the coastline and straight lines joining the following points, in the order in which they are listed: Point North Latitude West Longitude 1 69°26′N. 139°00′W. 2 69°30′N. 139°00′W. 3 69°30′N. 136°18′W. 4 69°00′N. 136°18′W. 5 69°00′N. 137°28′W.	Apr. 1 to Dec. 31	Strike 2 or take 1, whichever occurs first
  2	[Repealed, SOR/2008-99, s. 12]

Narwhal

23 No person who ordinarily resides in a settlement set out in column I of an item of the table to this section shall fish for narwhal after notice has been given by a fishery officer that the annual fishing quota set out in column II of that item has been reached.

24 Every person who kills a narwhal shall forthwith

• (a) affix the licence under the authority of which it was killed securely to the tusk of the narwhal or, where there is no tusk, to the carcass of the narwhal;

• (b) mark the month of the kill by making a notch in the appropriate date square indicated on the edge of the licence; and

• (c) tear off the portion of the licence indicated on the licence, mark on that portion of the licence the month in which the narwhal was killed and the sex of the narwhal, and return that portion of the licence as soon as possible to the person who issued the licence.

PART IIIWalrus

25 No person shall fish for walrus with a firearm unless the person uses

• (a) a rifle and bullets that are not full metal-jacketed that produce a muzzle energy of not less than 1,500 foot pounds; or

• (b) a shotgun and rifled slugs that produce a muzzle energy of not less than 1,500 foot pounds.

26 No person who ordinarily resides in a settlement set out in column I of an item of the table to this section shall fish for walrus after notice has been given by a fishery officer that the annual fishing quota set out in column II of that item has been reached.

PART IVSeals

Licences

• 26.1 (1) Every person who fishes for seals shall hold at least one of the following licences:

  • (a) a fishing licence for seal — personal use;

  • (b) a fishing licence for seal — commercial use; or

  • (c) a fishing licence for nuisance seal.

• (2) The operator of a collector vessel shall hold a collector vessel licence.

26.2 The Minister may establish — on the basis of the size of vessels used by licence holders for fishing seals, licence holders’ home ports and any other factor relevant to seal fishing — classes of fishing licences for seal referred to in subsection 26.1(1).

Prohibitions

27 No person other than a beneficiary shall sell, trade or barter a whitecoat or blueback.

• 28 (1) No person shall fish for seals, for personal or commercial use, in any of Sealing Areas 4 to 33 except with

  • (a) a round club made of hardwood that measures not less than 60 cm and not more than 1 m in length and that, for at least half of its length, beginning at one end, measures not less than 5 cm and not more than 7.6 cm in diameter;

  • (b) an instrument known as a hakapik, consisting of a metal ferrule that weighs at least 340 g with a slightly bent spike not more than 14 cm in length on one side of the ferrule and a blunt projection not more than 1.3 cm in length on the opposite side of the ferrule and that is attached to a wooden handle that measures not less than 105 cm and not more than 153 cm in length and not less than 3 cm and not more than 5.1 cm in diameter;

  • (c) a rifle and bullets that are not full metal-jacketed that produce a muzzle velocity of not less than 1,800 feet per second and a muzzle energy of not less than 1,100 foot pounds; or

  • (d) a shotgun of not less than 20 gauge and rifled slugs.

• (1.1) No person shall use a club or hakapik to strike a seal older than one year unless the seal has been shot with a firearm.

• (2) Every person who strikes a seal with a club or hakapik shall strike the seal on the top of the cranium until it has been crushed and shall immediately palpate the cranium to confirm that it has been crushed.

• (3) If a firearm is used to fish for a seal, the person who shoots the seal or retrieves it shall palpate the cranium as soon as possible after it is shot to confirm that the cranium has been crushed.

• (4) Every person who palpates the cranium of a seal and determines that the cranium is not crushed shall immediately strike the seal with a club or hakapik on the top of its cranium until the cranium has been crushed.

29 No person shall skin a seal until the cranium has been crushed and at least one minute has elapsed after the two axillary arteries of the seal located beneath its front flippers have been severed to bleed the seal.

30 No person shall fish for adult harp or hooded seals in whelping or breeding patches.