An incident which reveals the striking inadequacy of the Marine Mammal Protection Act occurred early this summer. In this incident, seven Inuit marionettes from the community of Pelly Bay were sent to a Rhode Island puppet master for repairs. These marionettes were to be used in an initiative by Inuit elders to teach their children Inuit history. The puppets were made with locally available material such as ring seal skins, caribou and musk ox hair - from non-endangered species - and from beached bone from beluga whales.

Despite the fact that these puppets were made from animals abundant in the north and were not intended for sale but for educational purposes only, the elders from Pelly Bay were viewed as committing a statutory offence under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. Because the puppets contained materials from seal and whale, materials banned from crossing the United States border under the Act, they were seized at the border and slated to be destroyed. Various forensic studies were conducted to authenticate the materials origins and, the U.S. authorities set in motion the process of pressing charges against the community of Pelly Bay.

Pelly Bay is a tiny Inuit village located in the heart of Canada's newest territory called Nunavut. The people there call themselves Netsilik (people of the seal) their life-style revolves around their ability to harvest and utilize seals. Pelly Bay is known as one of the most traditional Inuit villages in the Canada Arctic.