A recent post circulating on social media claiming that provincial wildlife authorities have sanctioned the hunting of George River, Mealy Mountain and Lac Joseph caribou herds, is false.
A moratorium on the hunting of George River caribou remains in place, as the herd size remains at less than one per cent of the abundance recorded in the early 1990s. The hunting of animals in the Mealy Mountain and Lac Joseph herds is currently prohibited under the Provincial Endangered Species Act.
The Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture’s Resource Enforcement Division has initiated an investigation into the alleged harvesting and possession of Caribou due to the social media post.
Anyone with any additional information regarding this issue is encouraged to call the Resource Enforcement Division’s Labrador Regional Office at 709-896-7957 or the provincial 24/7 poaching line at 1-877-820-0999, or provide a report online at www.gov.nl.ca/ffa/ers/report-poaching.