Regions: Dehcho Region
Tags: physical sciences, contaminants, mercury, climate change, fish
| Principal Investigator: | Stern, Gary (7) |
| Licence Number: | 15041 |
| Organization: | Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans Canada |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2012
|
| Issued: | Mar 27, 2012 |
| Project Team: | Jesse Carrie, Joanne Delaronde |
Objective(s): To collect fish from lakes and tributary rivers of lakes under fish (mercury) consumption advisories and compare with older data from government if available (DFO, Environment Canada); and to collect and analyse sediment cores from these lakes to see how lake ecosystem changes relate to fish mercury levels.
Project Description: The objective of this study is to collect fish from lakes and tributary rivers of lakes under fish (mercury) consumption advisories and compare with older data from government if available (DFO, Environment Canada), and to collect and analyse sediment cores from these lakes to see how lake ecosystem changes relate to fish mercury levels. There are two main methods involved in this work. For fish collection, the project team will rely upon local fishers to collect fish. Once the samples are received, they will analyse the fish for age, gender, size and mercury content using standard procedures. For the sediment cores, sediment slices will be analysed for mercury and other metals by standard procedures (CVAAS and ICP-MS, respectively) and organic matter (by Rock-Eval analyses). Sediment cores will also be dated using radiometric analyses so that they can be compared with the temporal fish data. This project involves community-based monitoring of fish from lakes under mercury consumption guidelines for fish issued by NWT Health. The research team is working with community members from Trout Lake (Sambaa K'e) and Tulita who are collecting fish. The research team will be visiting the communities (Trout Lake; Norman Wells and Tulita), talking to the elders to explain this work and why it is being done; time permitting, the team will also visit schools to talk about the study. The research team is also presenting at a workshop in Yellowknife in late November 2011, as well as at the Northern Contaminants Program workshop scheduled in 2012. In addition, the team will publish the results in peer-reviewed journals. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from April 7, 2012 to April 13, 2012.
