Community based seawater monitoring for organic contaminants and mercury in the Canadian Arctic

The concentrations of contaminants in seawater influence what is detected in marine mammals and seabirds and levels and time trends of the contaminants in the ocean has been identified as a knowledge gap by the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP). Samples were analyzed for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including brominated flame retardants (BFRs), perfluorinated substances and mercury. Repeated sampling at the same location and time of year will help develop temporal trend information for contaminants seawater. Supplemental Information The Northern Contaminants Program (NCP, https://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_7A463DBA.html) was established in 1991 in response to concerns about human exposure to elevated levels of contaminants in wildlife species that are important to the traditional diets of northern Aboriginal peoples. Early studies found a wide variety of substances, many of which had no Arctic or Canadian sources, but which were, nevertheless, reaching unexpectedly high levels in the Arctic ecosystem. The Canadian Cryospheric Information Network (CCIN, https://www.ccin.ca/) and the Polar Data Catalogue (PDC, https://polardata.ca/) have been developed over…

Publisher

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Resources

6

Catalogue metadata updated

2024-06-11