More than 100 members from nine Innu communities in Quebec are at a symposium in Sept-Iles this weekend debating whether to hunt caribou in northern Quebec and Labrador.

Biologists attending the conference have attributed the significant decline in the George River caribou herd to various factors, including climate change and mining.

The delegates have been debating whether a community hunt will be held anyway.

On Jan. 28, the Newfoundland and Labrador government banned hunting the George River caribou for five years due to the serious decline of the herd.

It's estimated the herd has shrunk from almost 800,000 animals in the mid-1980s to about 20,000 today.