NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Tags: physical sciences, fish habitat, fish sampling, all-weather road

Objective(s): To create a data base that will allow for informed decisions to direct the appropriate environmental responses to road issues and community fish management and harvest issues.

Project Description: The purpose of the study is to create a data base that will allow for informed decisions to direct the appropriate environmental responses to road issues and community fish management and harvest issues. This program will also provide a knowledge base to the Inuvialuit that will allow for the wise and sustainable long term management of fish resources in the study area. This program will involve sampling for fish in creeks crossed by the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) and sampling for fish in small lakes adjacent to the ITH. The research team recognize that sampling for fish can have lethal impacts and this program has been designed to reduce mortalities as far as possible. Fish mortalities that do occur will be stored on ice and delivered to the communities. In sampling both lakes and creeks the intent will be to document fish bearing or not. Effort will be reduced once a species has been identified, effort to identify other species will be applied and then areas effort will be stopped. Sampling in the creeks will consist of minnow trapping using G-type minnow traps (baited with whitefish roe), beach seining, angling and electro-fishing. Lakes will be sampled with a combination of beach seines and multi-mesh gillnets set for a 50 minute soak time. Gillnets will be monitored continually when set to avoid large catches. This program is directed by a steering committee composed of members of the Hunters and Trappers Committees of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. Other than the lead investigator/facilitator the entire field team consists of Inuvialuit beneficiaries. All activities associated with this project will occur along the ITH with the intent of creating local knowledge regarding the ecological state and how it affects fish and fish habitat. Information collected under this program will be collated to a format suitable for community use and understanding. This data will also be compiled into a larger working document initiated by the Tuktoyaktuk Inuvik Working Group that is a compendium of information for the area. The information will also be a component of a report that will be compiled to assess the initial year of the Imaryuk Monitor Pilot Program. It is important to note that the field team will gain the most in terms of intimate knowledge from this project. This knowledge will be vital in the years to come as harvest patterns change and impacts of the road become understood. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 23, 2018 to December 31, 2018.