Humans
The Inuvialuit are the indigenous people of the western Canadian Arctic and part of the circumpolar Inuit community. Their territory is known as the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and extends from the western Canadian Arctic islands to the Beaufort Sea coast and Mackenzie River delta.
Inuvialuit families carry out an annual beluga whale hunt every summer when the belugas return to the Mackenzie River Estuary. This relationship has been memorialized in art and song, and continues to provide subsistence all year long.
Inuvialuit have the right, under the 1984 Inuvialuit Final Agreement, to hunt beluga whales for subsistence purposes in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in accordance with the Beaufort Sea Beluga Management Plan.