NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: environmental assessment, site remediation, biology, mining impacts, fish, fisheries assessment, habitat, spawning areas, metal concentrations, littoral habitats

Objective(s): Preliminary fisheries study to confirm 1989 baseline studies and to assist in impact assessment for Abandonment and Restoration (A & R) Plan for site closure. Habitat confirmation will initially target stream drainages and shoreline lake habitat that would support spring spawning or migrating fish (i.e., northern pike, walleye, grayling). Habitat confirmation will be directed towards an assessment of habitat significance for the various life stages of the fish communities originally documented by Beak (1989) and any other species of fish that have the potential to inhabit these drainages. Habitat confirmation and assessments will be completed through visual observation. As well the researchers will determine areas of potential significance that can be incorporated into the development of the final A&R Plan discharge option risk assessment. Fish community sampling will be completed only to confirm presence/absence of fish in certain drainage areas (i.e. stream drainage and lake shoreline sampling). Sampling will be completed as near high flow conditions as possible recognizing time constraints from project initiation and the acquisition of sampling permits and again during the low flow period to document potential changes in the community based on available habitats. Additional sampling of fish communities will be completed once during the open water season to replicated fish tissue analysis sampling done in the baseline fisheries work by Beak (1989). The primary object of this sampling is to obtain the appropriate data to confirm current fish tissue metal content. Data from this fishing period will also provide additional community composition data, for those lakes sampled, as a comparison to 1987/8 baseline data.

Project Description: This is a preliminary fisheries study to confirm 1989 baseline studies and to assist in impact assessment for Abandonment and Restoration (A & R) Plan for site closure. The researchers will conduct habitat assessments along drainages of Steeves Lake and Indin River (i.e. fish habitat mapping, assessment of habitat potential, 'spot check' confirmation of fish communities, the collection of instantaneous and in-situ water quality and quantity measurements). All sampled fish will be live released after the collection of length/weight data is obtained. As well the researchers will photo document habitat assessment sites and standardize photographic locations for high flow and low flow comparisons. Sampling of the fish communities of Steeves Lake, Baton Lake, Spanner Lake, Lake 315 and the Indin River to obtain fish tissue for metal content analysis will be conducted. Fish lengths , weights, aging structures and organs will be obtained along with collected tissue for analysis. All study lakes, rivers and streams are within a 3 km radius of the mine site. Finally the researchers will produce a preliminary assessment report that can be incorporated into the Final A&R Plan. This will include a scope of work for specific fisheries studies to be completed in 2001 directly targeting the preferred abandonment and restoration plans.