NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region

Tags: environmental impact, climate change, marine environment, marine biology

Objective(s): To assess and mitigate the impacts of increased shipping and sea-ice loss on marine mammals in the eastern Beaufort Sea.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5559. The main objective is to assess and mitigate the impacts of increased shipping and sea-ice loss on marine mammals in the eastern Beaufort Sea. The primary method used in the completion of this objective will be passive acoustic monitoring of the western entrances to the Northwest Passage shipping route, particularly the Amundsen Gulf and Banks Island area. To accomplish the research team’s objectives, they have designed a program to work with local communities to remotely monitor both marine mammal and shipping activities in the Amundsen Gulf and the eastern Beaufort Sea. The main monitoring effort involves passive acoustic monitoring (PAM), which employs acoustic dataloggers (recorders) that can be left unattended to record sounds and then retrieved for downloading and analysis. A new form of PAM that the research team hopes to utilize will be with an undersea glider. There are two types of anchored acoustic recorder deployments, those that are located inshore and offshore. Inshore recorders are deployed near to the communities of Sachs Harbour, Ulukhaktok and Paulatuk in the Anguniaqvia niqiqyuam Marine Protected Area (ANMPA). These recorders are normally deployed via small craft based out of the local communities, at a depth of roughly 30 m. The recorders normally remain in the water for an entire year and are recovered during the following year. In some cases, such as in the ANMPA, recorders are deployed and recovered during the ice-free season and are not left out over winter. Offshore deployments use the same instrumentation as inshore but are deployed in deeper water, between 50 - 300 m and are recovered by ships such as the Canadian Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Sir Wilfrid Laurier. If available, deeper water deployments may also occur in collaboration with Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) moorings. Deployment gear includes an anchor (e.g. 10 kg sand-bags), the recorder, underwater floats, and either a 50-100 m drag line attached to a smaller anchor or an acoustic release. There are no surface floats on these deployments except in the cases where recorders are to be recovered within the same season. The recorder is suspended between 5-10 m above the ocean floor with the underwater floats where it remains until it is manually recovered the following year. The instruments themselves are aluminum/fiberglass cylinders, roughly 0.5 m in length by 0.1m width. Each recorder weighs between 5-10 kg in air. Being dataloggers, the recorders must be recovered in order to access the recordings. A new form of PAM recording involves the use of an undersea glider. The glider the research team plans to deploy is the Ocean Scout made by Heffring Engineering. The glider is designed to record sounds and take a limited number of oceanographic measure while it moves autonomously on a predetermined course through the water and then is recovered after a set period of time. The glider is relatively small (1.75 m, 25 kg) and travels slowly (approximately 1 km/hr) so should not pose any threat to marine mammals or fish. The research team does not expect to use the glider in the ISR until the 2024 season. At this point in time the research team first plans to conduct short deployments off of Tuktoyaktuk with a local guide. If these deployments are successful the research team will discuss the option of longer deployments with the community before any occur. In addition, the research team also plans to deploy a drone opportunistically when deploying/recovering recorders or taking short-term recordings. The drone the research team expects to use would be a DJI Mavic 3. Flights would be brief in duration, maximum of 1 hour, and no lower than 50 m above the water if there are marine mammals in the area. It is important to note that all of the team’s recorders, including the glider, are passive recorders and do not produce any sound. During the fall after each season's deployments/recoveries, results to date are expected to be shared with individuals and community representatives at the Inuvialuit Game Council meeting. In addition, the results can be shared in the communities during HTC meetings, whenever possible during opportunistic discussions with community members, and at other meetings such as the BSP or ArcticNet. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: March 19 - December 31, 2023