Bluenose East

This is one of three herds once simply known as the “Bluenose Herd”. In the mid 1990s, research showed that the Bluenose Herd was split into three herds all using different calving grounds, so the management units of Bluenose-East, Bluenose-West, and Cape Bathurst herds were created. There is no management board for this herd, but there is a management plan covering all three herds. The plan was prepared under the authority of the Advisory Committee for Cooperation on Wildlife Management. This group brings together representatives of several renewable resources boards and committees in the NWT and Nunavut to address cross-boundary wildlife issues.  The Bluenose-East herd was estimated at 104,000 animals in 2000. The herd declined to a population estimated at 19,000 in 2018, but in 2021 was thought to have increased slightly to 23,200.

Most of the herd’s calving area is in Nunavut, south and west of Kugluktuk near the NWT border, but its annual range takes it deep into the Northwest Territories, south and east of Great Bear Lake. Communities in the herd's range include Kugluktuk (NU), and Délın̨e, Wekweètì and Gamètì,(NWT). The herd may be harvested by nine communities; Wrigley, Norman Wells, Tulít’a, Délın̨e, Whatì, Gamètì, Behchokǫ̀, Paulatuk, and Kugluktuk.