Download NIRB File No.: 16YN054 NPC File No.: 148315 Topic/Issue

NIRB File No.: 16YN054
NPC File No.: 148315
Topic/Issue: Supplemental supporting documentation
Reference: Requirement of documentation to complete screening assessment
Rationale: To properly scope and assess proposed projects, the NIRB requires proponents to
provide specific information on proposed activities, associated components, and proposed
mitigation and monitoring measures related to the proposal.
Request: Provide supplemental information regarding the following:
- Sail plans (e.g., locations, timelines);
The RRS Ernest Shackleton will depart St. John’s, NL on August 13, 2016 and both
vessels will meet in the western Arctic in the fourth week of August (August 26). That
transit will span ~3000 nautical miles, during which time a continuous plankton recorder
(CPR) will sample the upper 15 m of the water column. Station based sampling will
occur at three Canadian stops, off Ulukhaktok (August 27, 2016), Cambridge Bay
(August 29, 2016) and Pond Inlet (September 4, 2016). The map below illustrates the
east-west, west-east routes and the approximate locations of the three communities
offshore from which plankton sampling will take place.
- Vessel(s) to be contracted to conduct the research;
RRS Ernest Shackleton
- Summary of public consultation conducted including summary of public involvement
measures, a summary of concerns expressed, and strategies employed to address any
concerns;
There has been no direct public consultation related to the scientific objectives outlined
in this proposal. However, the separate organizers of the vessels transiting this region
(RRS Ernest Shackleton and Crystal Serenity) have consulted with local communities
and all levels of government in both Canada and the USA. Those consultations have
culminated in the planned stops by the cruise ship in the communities of Ulukhaktok,
Cambridge Bay, and Pond Inlet. The DFO permit obtained related to scientific research
includes consultation with communities and HTOs.
- Summary of future consultation plans;
Traditional knowledge and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) will be important to evaluate how
closely scientific understanding of the spatial variation in plankton and environmental
conditions can be mapped onto areas of traditional and current use (fisheries, marine
mammal distributions, etc.). Following the collection and dissemination of the data to be
collected within this program, a follow-up questionnaire to local community leaders and
HTO chairs will inquire to what extent these scientific patterns align with their uses of
the marine environment. Such consultation to identify areas of agreement and
disagreement as to ‘hotspots’ of productivity will feed back into suggesting which areas
should be targeted for potential future monitoring using plankton and environmental
indices.
- Research methodologies to be employed;
Ordinarily, monitoring the influences of changing ocean conditions on marine food webs
is an extremely expensive proposition in offshore, northern waters, where dedicated
scientific ship time can cost upwards of $20,000 per day. Circumventing this major
cost, yet providing weeks of continuous sampling is a key component of this monitoring
project design. Specifically, this project was initiated in late 2015 upon the receipt of
two berths aboard the RRS Ernest Shackleton offered to Dr. Fisher and the opportunity
for him to develop a scientific plan that would contribute new sampling information and
analyses within the Northwest Passage as it transits east-to-west from St. John’s to
Ulukhaktok and west-to-east to Greenland escorting a cruise ship. Such a vessel of
opportunity paired with a continuous plankton recorder and continuous measurement of
temperature, depth, salinity provides new monitoring information to address the key
knowledge gaps related to the distribution and abundance of drivers of Nunavut marine
productivity (including oceanographic influences). Part of our rationale is to
demonstrate the value of a low-cost alternative to dedicated scientific ship time that
provides environmental and biological marine monitoring data that are directly
applicable to assessments of fisheries productivity. This will provide Nunavut
communities and government agencies with information on the state of marine waters
across the region, thereby contributing information to aid local and regional participation
in the expanding area of integrated marine resource management. In addition to
baseline information, this project will detail how such monitoring can be repeated in the
future (including associated costs) so that periodic monitoring of oceanography and
plankton on scales from years to decades can be implemented in the Nunavut region—
using additional ships of opportunity as marine traffic increases within the region.
This project’s work plan is built around the fact that the RRS Ernest Shackleton will
transit almost continuously through the Northwest Passage in August-September 2016.
The ideal and proven method to collect oceanographic and plankton information from
vessels in transit is through the use of a continuous plankton recorder (CPR, described
by Richardson et al. 2006 Progress in Oceanography). The deployment of that
mechanical towed body and associated oceanographic data sensor (temperature,
depth, salinity) will facilitate sampling the upper 15 m of the water column throughout
the Northwest Passage and constitutes a major activity of this monitoring program. The
device measures only ~3 m3 of water per 10 nautical miles—a very small volume that
nonetheless provides an index of species compositions of phytoplankton (marine plants
at the base of the food chain) and zooplankton (small animals that serve as food for
fishes, marine mammals, etc.) and becomes a powerful tool to identify changes in
composition and abundances at regional spatial scales. The indictors derived from
CPR are globally acknowledged as informative indices of phytoplankton abundance and
zooplankton abundance and composition. On the CPR wire, a mini sensor will record
salinity, temperature and depth. In combination, those indices have proven instrumental
as leading indicators of marine ecosystem change in southern regions. All CPR data
from this monitoring program will be analyzed by experts in the UK (Sir Alistar Hardy
Foundation for Ocean Sciences). Such methods could be deployed by other ships of
opportunity in the future to monitor the productivity of Nunavut’s marine waters. This
mission is largely a proof-of-concept of that concept, and also a means to provide the
first characterizations of plankton communities across this region.
Planned station-based sampling off of Ulukhaktok (August 27), Cambridge Bay (August
29), Pond Inlet (September 4; all as outlined in the map, above) will provide additional
net-based phytoplankton and zooplankton samples (two per location) using vertical tows
(maximum depth 100 m) and small mouth (<1 m) and small mesh nets (0.2 mm; no
fishes will be collected in this survey). These plankton tows and associated
oceanographic data (temperature, salinity, depth) will be processed at CFER by the end
of 2016. It is expected by all collaborators that all results will be submitted as peerreviewed scientific articles.
- Mitigation plans that include the identification of potential impacts and proposed
mitigation measures; and
This scientific plan includes the sampling of phytoplankton and zooplankton in the upper
water column and the collection of temperature, depth and salinity information.
Therefore the scientific component should have minimal, immesurable influence on the
Nunavut marine environment, as this mission takes advantage of the availability of
existing ships of opportunity as a research platform. All scientific personnel have
extensive training in the safe preservation of samples and all research will be
undertaken aboard the British Antarctic Survey Vessel RRS Ernest Shackleton, such
that the crew has extensive experience conducting safe, environmentally responsible
transits through polar regions. Potential mitigation measures (e.g. using satellite-derived
measures of productivity) would not provide the same level of information (no species
identities, no temperature beyond surface temperature) so sampling throughout the
northwest Passage is necessary to meet the scientific objectives.
- Where appropriate a discussion on waste management plans.
No waste will be generated as a result of this scientific project beyond the presence of the
certified polar vessel RRS Shackleton, which will be in Nunavut waters escorting a ship already.
All samples will be processed and preserved onboard and no scientific waste will be emitted to
the local environment.