Community Based Seawater Monitoring for Organic Contaminants and Mercury in the Canadian Arctic

The purpose of this project is to develop information on levels and time trends of contaminants in the Arctic ocean waters using a community based approach. The project was initiated in 2007 by PhD student Adam Morris working with Peter Amaraulik Sr. from Resolute Bay as part of his PhD research and continued as an Northern Contaminates Program (NCP) funded project in 2011-12 and again in 2014-15 and 2015-16. The project is now part of NCP's core monitoring program and has expanded in scope on a geographic scale, sampling strategies, and targeted contaminants. Currently, this project uses ultratrace analysis of seawater for mercury and methyl mercury species, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), organophosphate ester flame retardants (OPE), brominated flame retardants (BFR), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), polycyclic aromatic carbons (PACs/PAH), and several other legacy persistent organic pollutants (POPs). To the greatest extent possible, we partner with community members to lead sampling. The communities we work with include: Resolute Bay, Nain, and Cambridge Bay.