People in a Baffin Island community say the bounty provided by the cull of more than 600 narwhal trapped in the sea ice near Pond Inlet has left them happier and healthier in time for the holidays.

The whales were slaughtered in an organized cull after Inuit hunters discovered them on Nov. 15, trapped by ice in shrinking areas of open water about about 17 kilometres from Pond Inlet near Bylot Island.

Elders advised the whales would die from a lack of oxygen if the ice closed over the shrinking "blow holes" and federal officials agreed, authorizing the cull.

After the narwhal were killed on the ice, meat and muktuk reached every household in the community of 1,300, prompting a notable change in the town. People became friendlier and more generous with less sickness, said Joshua Arreak, an Anglican priest in Pond Inlet.

"To date, we have not heard people asking for food over the local radio," said Arreak. "It's amazing that most people have food to eat."

According to Statistics Canada, 40 per cent of Inuit children in Nunavut went hungry at least once in 2006. Of those, 25 per cent were hungry once a month or more.

For a while, plentiful food from the hunt helped the community's social problems, said James Arvaluk, who represents Pond Inlet in Nunavut's legislature.

"No calls from the nursing station for people being beaten or being drunk," said Arvaluk.

A local nurse and the RCMP agreed, saying there were fewer calls during the two-week hunt.

Three weeks later, crime and sickness are returning, but Arvaluk said he hopes the goodwill will last longer.