Nauttiqsuqtiiq from Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet were instrumental in another search and rescue (SAR) mission at the end of January where missing hunters were found safe.

The four hunters left Pond Inlet on snowmobile, heading toward Arctic Bay. The trip should take 12 hours maximum, but they were lost for five days.

The search was a joint effort between QIA’s Nauttiqsuqtiit, or Inuit Stewards, Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay’s community search and rescue teams and the hamlets.

Despite all the people involved in the search, the mayor of Arctic Bay, Moses Oyukuluk, ended up being the one to spot one of the missing hunters by chance.

Olyukuluk was out checking his seal nets at the mouth of Strathcona Sound when he came across one of the missing hunters. The group had found shelter in the area, near the Nauttiqsuqtiit docks.

There were many snowmobile tracks on the ground from the SAR mission at the beginning of January. This confused the hunters, making it so they didn’t know where they were.

It is part of the Nauttiqsuqtiit mandate to assist in SARs. In this case they participated from the beginning to the end by providing equipment and people to help in the effort.

QIA Nauttiqsuqtiit contributed three snowmobiles to the Pond Inlet SAR team and three to the Arctic Bay team.

Three Nauttiqsuqtiit helped search on the ground—Ryan Arnakalak, from Pond Inlet, and Jonah Muckpa and Joshua Kiguktak, from Arctic Bay.

The Nauttiqsuqtiit had InReach devices and were split up, so each search team had a device.

Niore Iqalukjuak, the Nauttiqsuqtiit Community Supervisor from Arctic Bay, and Leo Maktar, the acting Community Supervisor from Pond Inlet, were then able to track the search parties on computers in each of their offices.

“We kept our eyes on the guys in the mission throughout,” said Iqalukjuak.

Along with tracking the search parties who were on the ground, Iqalukjuak also went up in a Twin Otter as a spotter.

The search mission was hampered by high winds that picked up on the third day of the search, blowing up to 90 kilometres per hour.

The missing hunters had managed to make it to shelter by then and were protected until they were found the next day.

Searchers found parts of snowmobile skis and qamutiik runners, so they knew the hunters were in the area.

This group of hunters didn’t have a Spot device, making the search more difficult. Spot devices are available at hamlet offices.

Picking up a device before going out of town just takes a minute, and it reduces searching and unnecessary worry for family members.

When hunters go out they sometimes pack in a rush, Iqalukjuak said. They expect nothing will go wrong.

The missing hunters arrived home to Pond Inlet with the search party, more than a week after they departed.