Regions: South Slave Region
Tags: aquatic ecosystems, biology, fish habitat, fisheries assessment, resource management, taxonomy
| Principal Investigator: | Uren, Shane (3) |
| Licence Number: | 14053 |
| Organization: | Rescan Environmental Services Ltd. |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2007
2006
|
| Issued: | Aug 09, 2006 |
| Project Team: | Francois Landry (Senior Fisheries Biologist, Rescan), Andrew Harwood (Fisheries Biologist, Rescan), Adam Lewis (Technical Advisor, Ecodynamics), Victor Mandeville (Field Assistant), Stanley Beck (Field Assistant), John Desjarlais (Field Assistant), David Campbell (Hydrologist), Eric Demers (Fisheries Biologist) |
Project Description: The field survey of the fish habitat and community of Trudel Creek and a section of the Taltson River will likely take place during one trip in August, although there is the possibility of a second trip to collect additional information. The field team will fly into Fort Smith and then be transported to the Twin Gorges Camp either by plane or helicopter. Rescan will use a local helicopter company for transporting personnel and equipment between survey sites on Trudel Creek and a potential reference site on the Taltson River. Fish community surveys will be carried out using gillnets with varying mesh size, beach seines and minnow traps. The species and numbers of fish that will be captured during the survey is unknown, but gillnet sets will remain short (approximately 1 hour) to minimize fish mortality. This is the first known fish survey of Trudel Creek but the species that have been captured in a nearby section of the Taltson River are: lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), longnose sucker (Catostomus catostomus), white sucker (Catostomus commersonii), northern pike (Esox lucius), walleye (Sander vitreus), trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus) and burbot (Lota lota). Further to this, two species: cisco (Coregonus artedii) and lake chub (Couesius plumbeus), have been found in nearby lakes. Habitat surveys will be carried out using a range of measuring, photographic and GPS equipment. Fish community and habitat surveys will be carried out from an inflatable zodiac equipped with a motor brought from Vancouver by Rescan. A final report based on the results of this study will be made publicly available by Northwest Territories Energy Corporation. Fieldwork will take place from August 9 to December 31, 2006 at the following locations: Trudel Creek (from 60° 24' 54" N 111° 25' 20" W to 60° 28' 07" N 111° 17' 44" W) and Taltson River (from 61° 07' 35" N 112° 36' 07" W to 61° 03' 13" N 112° 32' 58" W).
