Lancaster Sound seismic survey for research only, German firm says

RANDY BOSWELL
Postmedia News

The German research institute whose ship is heading to Canada to conduct a controversial seismic survey in Nunavut waters near Baffin Island has expressed “growing concern” about the dispute, in which several Inuit communities and a leading Arctic environment group stand opposed to the Canadian government over a planned seabed probe in Lancaster Sound — which is also a proposed national marine conservation area.

Despite strong objections from Nunavut’s Qikiqtani Inuit Association and the Iqaluit-based Oceans North Canada, Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis and Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced July 23 that the federal government’s planned geological mapping mission in Lancaster Sound — to be carried out by scientists aboard the Polarstern — would proceed.

Opponents have argued that powerful underwater blasts used in seismic testing could harm the hearing of marine mammals and disrupt migration activity within the proposed marine sanctuary, a key habitat for narwhals, beluga whales and other species.

They also say — despite federal claims to the contrary — that the Canadian government plans to use the seabed survey to check for possible oil and gas deposits in Lancaster Sound before fixing the boundaries of the promised conservation area.

The planned survey has also drawn criticism from federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who recently accused the Conservative government of “rushing ahead with oil exploration” in Lancaster Sound just months after announcing an ecological reserve “in exactly the same place.”

Now, with its research vessel en route to Baffin Island to begin the seismic investigation, a spokesman for the Bremerhaven-based Alfred Wegener Institute acknowledged the “controversial public debate in Canada” over Lancaster Sound but insisted the Polarstern’s mission is “pure basic research” that poses no risk to wildlife.

“Polarstern is an ice-breaking research vessel and not equipped for targeted oil-and-gas explorations,” the institute’s communications chief, Ralf Roechert, said via email.

“Seismic investigations on Polarstern have been intensively monitored and, with the methods used, no environmental harm to marine life was detected.”

He also noted that while some research will be conducted for the Geological Survey of Canada, “the whole expedition is financed by the German minister of research simply for its scientific importance for international polar research. There is no other financial resource involved, not from the Canadian government, nor from any other source.”

Roechert also stated that “we are quite irritated” about the debate and “hope that the coming Polarstern expedition will not be misused in an inner-Canadian political conflict,” one that the AWI has been closely monitoring.

“Whatever decisions will be taken concerning the planned investigations in Lancaster Sound, we are happy to accept them, as we see this as a purely Canadian issue,” he stated.

“As polar researchers, however, we are certainly aware of the risks of oil-and-gas exploitations in the highly sensitive Arctic environment,” Roechert added.

“Thus we can perfectly understand the concern of Inuit communities and Canadian citizens on that issue. But, as has been stated, oil-and-gas exploration is neither the business of the Alfred Wegener Institute, nor of our research vessel Polarstern.”

But Christopher Debicki, Nunavut projects director for Oceans North Canada, said federal researchers made clear during community consultations on Baffin Island that probing for possible oil-and-gas resources is one of the goals of the Lancaster Sound survey.

“While the German ship and its scientists may be proceeding with the best of research motivations, the Canadian government in its own documentation makes it very clear that this seismic work is proposed in the context of hydrocarbon exploration,” Debicki told Postmedia News. 

Prentice has said that the “incredibly rich ecosystem” of Lancaster Sound — which he recently described as the “Serengeti” of the Arctic — deserves the protection that a federal park designation would afford.

But he insists the seismic survey “needs to be done” as part of the routine process to establish any marine conservation area.

“We go through a very thorough process before we create any national park to make sure we know what resources are within the area that is being put inside of the national park,” he stated last month. “This is just good planning.”

However, officials with the QIA — who have been meeting in recent days to consider their next moves ahead of the Polarstern’s arrival in the Baffin region — have repeatedly expressed doubts about the safety of seismic testing for animals and about the federal government’s motives for conducting the survey.

Two territorial government agencies — the Nunavut Research Institute and Nunavut Impact Review Board — have approved the federal government’s plan to have the Polarstern conduct seismic tests in Lancaster Sound.

But QIA president Okalik Eegeesiak recently complained that concerns raised by Baffin Island’s Inuit communities had been unfairly dismissed.

“The news that NRCan intends to proceed with their project plans and ignore the comments of community members is extremely disconcerting for QIA and all Inuit,” Eegeesiak said last month. “We have clearly been ignored.”