NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region, South Slave Region

Tags: mining, fish, environmental baseline

Objective(s): The objective of this research is to provide a baseline information on the fish population and habitat in and around the Thor Lake area.

Project Description: This licence is issued for the scientific research application #915. The objective of this research is to provide a baseline information on the fish population and habitat in and around the Thor Lake area. Fish samples will be examined in eleven lakes (Thor, Elbow, Long, U, Great Slave (docking site only), Fred, Cressy, A, South Tardiff, North Tardiff, Thorn, and Megan) and four streams (Fred Creek, the outlet of Thor Lake, an inlet of Thor Lake, and the outlet of South Tardiff Lake). The dish habitat will be characterized and the habitat values georeferenced. Depths measurement will be used to create digital bathymetric maps. Gill nets and minnow traps will be used to determine relative fish abundances in the study lakes and the streams will be electrofished. This will help to determine fish species abundance and population size. Samples of fish tissue will be collected and eight fish will be sacrificed (... Show moremost likely northern pike and lake whitefish). The eight fish will be analysed separately for metals, and a composite sample will be analysed for radionucleotides. Age structures (otoliths or scales) will also be collected from the sacrificed fish. Data and analysis on the fish population in and around the Thor Lake site will be made available to communities and the Aurora Research Institute to be included in their library. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from September 18 to December 31, 2009 within and adjacent to the Thor Lake property (62 06' 27" N by 112 36' 25" W). Show less