Nunavut regulators invite comment on Iqaluit mercury study

The Nunavut Impact Review Board is accepting public comments until Aug. 19 on a project that aims to measure levels of mercury in fish and other sea life in Frobisher Bay.

The project, scheduled to take place from September 2019 to September 2020, would involve the use of a boat to access different research sampling locations around the bay.

Researchers plan to store and use gasoline to refuel their boat during proposed research activities and to dispose of non-combustible waste in the municipal landfill.

You are invited to provide the NIRB with your comments regarding whether the proposed project is:

• likely to arouse significant public concern and, if so, why;

• likely to cause significant adverse ecosystemic or socioeconomic effects and, if so, why;

• likely to cause significant adverse impacts on wildlife habitat or Inuit harvest activities and, if so, why;

• a type where the potential adverse effects are highly predictable and can be prevented/managed appropriately with known technology.

Comments may also recommend any specific mitigation measures you feel would be appropriate, and to bring any other matter of importance related to this project proposal to the NIRB’s attention, the NIRB said in its public screening information.

In its comments to the NIRB, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans pointed out that section 7 of the Marine Mammal Regulations (Fisheries Act) prohibits the disturbance of marine mammals.

“DFO recommends that watercraft should survey the area for marine mammals to avoid disturbing them. If marine mammals are encountered, and remain in the area, effort should be made to avoid disturbing them by rerouting, slowly navigating around their location at a reduced speed and maintaining their distance,” the DFO said.

You can access project information online, as well as submit comments directly to the NIRB at www.nirb.ca.

Comments can still be submitted directly to the NIRB via email at info@nirb.ca or via fax to (867) 983-2594.

This project received a financial boost earlier this month, when Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s minister for fisheries and oceans, came to Nunavut with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

On the Apex beach on Aug. 2, Wilkinson, wearing rubber boots, even took his turn at collecting a sample for the new project, which the DFO has promised to help finance.

The University of Waterloo project is to receive $108,000 from the DFO’s coastal environmental baseline program.

The multi-year project will look at mercury, which is found in nature, and its toxic cousin, methylmercury, which is produced directly and indirectly as part of several industrial processes and carried to the Arctic by air and water currents.

The project’s overall goal is to characterize the current state of the ecosystem in Frobisher Bay, a backgrounder says.

It will focus on measuring concentrations of total mercury and methylmercury in clams, starfish, barnacles, Arctic cod and other foraging fish species, such as four-horned and Arctic sculpin, and Sylvia Grinnell’s stock of Arctic char.

The project description notes that “mercury contamination is a continuing threat” to the health of Arctic ecosystems and their human residents, who rely on country foods.

Mercury has been linked to a host of serious health problems, including permanent brain and kidney damage.

The DFO study is, among other things, intended to help better understand how Arctic char absorb mercury, the project description said.

The project will also contribute to capacity building in Iqaluit, as residents will assist in collecting samples.