Article content

Cod fishing derbies are a big deal in Canada’s North. In Arviat, Nunavut, it’s held annually on the Victoria Day long weekend and Ruth Kaviok was there this year trying to win the big prize of $10,000.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Daphne Bramham: We the North. So, why aren't we listening to what Inuit are saying about climate change? Back to video

But it wasn’t cod that the past president of the National Inuit Youth Council caught.

“I caught a starfish and I even yelled to my brother, ‘What the hell is this?’ “ said Kaviok, who was a panelist at a recent meeting organized by the United Nations Association of Vancouver to discuss circumpolar issues.

Starfish shouldn’t be in the waters off the western shore of Hudson Bay any more than the starving polar bear that wandered into her community last year and attacked a father egg picking with his children. There also shouldn’t be orcas or grizzly bears ranging so far north.

But with climate change, these are new realities in the Arctic.

On the Yukon River, Canadian Junior Ranger Devon Billy-Freeman said she and her fellow rangers are seeing salmon dying because the water is no longer cold enough to kill the parasites that attack them.