POND INLET, Nunavut- A marine conservation charity and Inuit hunters are praising cruise operators for agreeing to avoid a Nunavut waterway where thousands of narwhal migrate each summer. The Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators recently said its members’ ships would not travel through Eclipse Sound this summer and instead go through the Pond Inlet strait. Oceans North and the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization had requested the move as numbers of summering narwhal in the area off the northeastern coast of Baffin Island have decreased, which they say is due to increased shipping traffic. “Narwhal continue to decline in our area and have not bounced back to historical numbers as we had hoped,” David Qamaniq, chair of the hunters and trappers organization, said in a news release. “We thank…