2023-2024 Temporal and Spatial Trends of Legacy and Emerging Organic and Metal/Element Contaminants in Canadian Polar Bears

In relation to the Blueprint section 7.5 Ecosystem-based monitoring and research, and under 7.5.3 Marine Ecosystems and 7.7 Selection of Species for Long-Term Monitoring, 7.7.3. Polar Bear, in polar bears from priority Canadian subpopulations (Hudson Bay), this project aims to do the following:1. For polar bears within the two management zones in (southern and western) Hudson Bay, in the 2023/24 year to continue or establish to monitor with increased resolution, the (retrospective) temporal trends and changes of NCP priority contaminants including mercury and other metals, as well as new and emerging POPs that are currently regulated or under review for regulation (e.g. Stockholm Convention on POPs).2.To more clearly reveal the temporal trends, to collect scientific and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) data and observations for e.g. age, sex, body condition, time of collection, lipid content, diet, food web structure and climate change variables. To use carbon and nitrogen SIs and FAs as ecological tracers, to examine the influence of diet/food web structure on POP temporal trends in Hudson Bay polar bears.3.To communicate POP and metals results back to participating HTOs, hunters and communities through consultations, scheduled workshops and visitations, reports, and summary fact sheets.4.To archive the remaining Hudson Bay polar bear tissue samples, as well as tissues collected in northern Baffin Bay (for future contaminant monitoring), in Environment and Climate Change Canadas National Wildlife Specimen Bank (ECCC-NWSB), NWRC, Carleton University in Ottawa.