The Baffin Fisheries Coalition is pleased to announce the completion of revenue sharing royalty payments to its membership for the 2007 fiscal year.

IQALUIT, Nunavut Jan 25, 2008

The Baffin Fisheries Coalition is pleased to announce the completion of revenue sharing royalty payments to its membership for the 2007 fiscal year.

For the fourth year in a row, the BFC has distributed payments to its membership. Recently over $600,000 was distributed between its member organizations.

“Once again, these royalty payments to our member organizations are real proof that cooperation and vision are key to the sustainable development of the Baffin economy” stated Jacopie Maniapik, BFC Chairman.

Joshua Kango , Chair of Iqaluit’s Amarok HTO said “Amarok has proactively been reinvesting royalty payments into our new commercial building which we are now renting as office space. We are very happy to be in a position to show that our membership in the BFC continues to produce real benefits for our members and investment in our community”

“In 2007 our fisheries revenues were invested in a 31 foot vessel to undertake hunts for the community. We hope this way to increase the amount of country food available to the community” added Peterloosie Qarpik, chair of the Pangnirtung HTO.

BFC is located in Iqaluit, Nunavut and it is a Coalition of nine (9) Inuit owned organizations on Baffin Island. The majority of the members are Baffin Island Hunters and Trappers Organizations. The overall objective of the Coalition is to maximize the benefits of the developing fishery to Nunavut through a variety of initiatives as follows:

• Revenue sharing with its members:
• Vessel acquisition and ownership;
• Support for education and training programs, ensure that Inuit receive the initial skills to allow them to work on the fishing vessels, and through a progression stage to move into technical and managerial positions on the harvesting vessels;
• Support for exploratory and research projects. As a result of this fund communities and stakeholders can carry out various exploratory and research projects. The benefits of such a fund are evident in the development of the 0A turbot fishery whereby Nunavut has 100% of this allocation on the Canadian side. Through this fund, major initiatives will be undertaken to work with the communities to help them develop their inshore fishery.