Regions: Dehcho Region, South Slave Region
Tags: contaminants, fish, metals, fish health, burbot, lake trout, northern pike, organic contaminants
| Principal Investigator: | Evans, Marlene S. (54) |
| Licence Number: | 16747 |
| Organization: | Environment and Climate Change Canada |
| Licensed Year(s): |
2024
2020
2019
|
| Issued: | Sep 14, 2020 |
| Project Team: | Derek Muir, Richard Simon, Ray Griffith, Shonto Catholique, Patrick Riley, Mike Low, Diane Giroux, Glen Guthrie |
Objective(s): To investigate whether contaminant levels are changing in fish in Great Slave Lake.
Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4818. This research will investigate whether contaminant levels are changing in fish in Great Slave Lake which the team have been studying since the early 1990s. The research team plan to work with commercial fishery and community collected lake trout from the Hay River and Lutsel K’e areas, burbot from the Lutsel K’e and Fort Resolution areas and nothern pike from the Fort Resolution area of Great Slave Lake, and northern pike from the Fort Resolution area of Great Slave Lake. Twenty burbot and 20 northern pike will be collected from the West Basin of Great Slave Lake (near Slave River) by community members from Fort Resolution during their normal subsistence fishing activities (gill net or angling). Twenty lake trout will be collected from the West Basin of Great Slave Lake by the Hay River commercial fishery (gill net). Twenty lake trout and 20 burbot will be collected from the East Arm of Great Slave Lake by community members from Lutsel K’e during their normal subsistence fishing activities (gill net or angling). The research team maintain regular contact with community members by telephone and email from NCP proposal submission, NCP report submission, obtaining fish for analyses, and discussing results. Copies of the proposal and annual report are provided to the community organizations. The team also have been developing simple posters of the mercury results which have been well received. The research team will also visit annually to discuss results, ideally as part of a larger forum such as a workshop where the audience can be larger and broader. Marlene was unable to travel last winter due to COVID but hopes to have a chance to travel this fiscal year. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from September 15, 2020 to December 31, 2020.
