Base de données de recherche des TNO

Régions: North Slave Region

étiquettes: physical sciences, mining impacts, fish habitat, habitat assessment, ecology, fish population, environmental compensation

Objectif(s): The objectives of this project are to: 1. determine the presence of fishes in selected waterbodies on the BHP Diamonds claim block, 2. determine the extent of utilization of streams by fishes as migration routes, and 3. inventory the quantity and quality of fish habitat in waterbodies supporting fishes. These data will be used as baseline support for BHP's application for the EKATI Mine expansion. The information will be used to determine the potential habitat losses due to the mine expansion so that habitat compensation, as per the FOC No Net Loss guiding principle, can be calculated.

Description du projet: The objectives of this project are to: 1. determine the presence of fishes in selected waterbodies on the BHP Diamonds claim block, 2. determine the extent of utilization of streams by fishes as migration routes, and 3. inventory the quantity and quality of fish habitat in waterbodies supporting fishes. The potential species involved in this monitoring program are Arctic grayling, burbot, lake trout, round whitefish, and slimy sculpin. The number of fishes to be sampled will depend on the number of each species present in the lakes and streams. As this is exploratory research, the compositions of the fish communities are currently unknown. All fish will be live sampled except for 20 lake trout and 20 round whitefish from each of Cujo and White lakes which will be sacrificed for tissue metals concentration analysis. Three methods will be used to conduct the fisheries surveys: 1. box trap sampling at the downstream end of Pigeon Stream, 2. small-mesh index gillnetting in the survey lakes, and 3. electrofishing within selected portions of Pigeon Stream and the inflow/outflow streams of the survey lakes.