The Knowledge Exchange Workshop was about communicating across the various stakeholders in the Arctic, to showcase the different perspectives from science, policy and Indigenous groups. Our intention for the event was to open up communication channels, and allow for greater understanding of both the challenges and opportunities that we are facing in the Arctic.

The workshop included discussions with researchers and students who work onboard the CCGS Amundsen which had just completed leg 1 of the 2018 summer cruise where they conducted the first ever Hudson Bay wide survey when sea ice was still present and freshwater input was at it’s spring maximum. The BaySys project seeks to understand the relative contributions of freshwater regulation versus that of climate change on freshwater-marine coupling in Hudson Bay.

Several keynote presentation were delivered both in the Town of Churchill and onboard the CCGS Amundsen.  A discussion panel focused on the topic “Climate Change, Industrialization and Globalization: Are we prepared for both the challenges and opportunities?” The panel included representatives from the Inuit Circumpolar Council, the community of Chesterfield Inlet, the Canadian Coast Guard, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Manitoba. Many of the questions focused on how we can move forward to bring the knowledge gained from science and mobilize it into policy.

Although the workshop was only two days in length the impacts of it will be positive and long lasting:

“The several days you gave us all in Churchill were transformative. The Knowledge Exchange Workshop has been really helpful to me as our Senate Arctic Committee plans our September Arctic tour, ” said Senator Patricia Bovey.

“Thank you for the wonderful days spent in Churchill and aboard the Amundsen, and for the conversations and connections you catalyzed. It was a memorable trip for me, and a reminder of the reasons we do what we do at the CFI,” said Guy Levesque – Vice-President, Programs and Performance, Canada Foundation for Innovation.

The sampling process on board is pretty straight forward. We have two main nets that we use to catch the zooplankton: the Tucker, which is dragged alongside the icebreaker while moving slowly, and the Monster, which is basically dunked straight down into the water and is then pulled back up towards the surface. There’s twist off bottles at the end of the net where the zooplankton are collected. I have a nice Coleman water jug nearby into which I transfer the sample in order to keep them cool, then I bring it to the laboratory on-board the icebreaker. Next, I pour the sample into a large pan to sort the bugs one by one, and by species, using tweezers. They then go into labelled vials and are stored in the freezer until we bring them back to the university, where we conduct the mercury analysis.

Mercury is toxic in its organic form – methylmercury, which bioaccumulates in biological tissue and biomagnifies up the food web. That is to say that methylmercury tends to stay in one’s system and for that reason, predators accumulate the mercury burden of their prey. As a result, top predators tend to have elevated levels of mercury. This is a huge health concern for humans, particularly for the Northerners who consume top predator species (e.g. beluga) as a regular part of their diet. For this reason, we collect zooplankton to probe the processes which are thought to drive mercury levels in top predators. Also, since zooplankton are considered prey to higher trophic level species, they are much more abundant, easier to collect and of course it is less evasive to collect them, as opposed to the predators.

My favourite part about working on board is being able to work alongside experts from a number of different disciplines. My group’s work alone is only one piece of the puzzle, but together we generate a picture from which we can deepen our understanding of the Arctic environment and its functioning. Thank you to Manitoba Hydro who helped fund the BaySys project and to the Captain and crew of the CCGS Amundsen.