2018-2019 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), to determine spatial differences and/or temporal trends and changes, and conduct research to determine the influence of environmental processes and change, of legacy and new and emerging POPs of concern (Appendix A, Schedules A and B). These POPs and elemental/metal contaminants are priorities for the NCP (and information is needed for international treaties such as LRTAP and the Stockholm Convention on POPs), and contaminants data will also support other Canadian (e.g. Chemicals Management Plan-Monitoring and Surveillance) and international chemical management and monitoring initiatives. A long-term objective is to also screen for new, emerging and targeted POPs that are regulatory priorities and predicted or likely to bioaccumulate in Canadian polar bears, which may also include congeners, isomers and/or precursors and degradation products.Short term objectives are to: 1. For polar bears within the two management zones in (southern and western) Hudson Bay, in the 2018-2019 fiscal year to continue or establish to monitor with increased resolution, the (retrospective) temporal trends and changes of NCP priority, new and emerging POPs that are currently regulated or under review for regulatory action (e.g. the international treaty of the Stockholm Convention on POPs).2. Using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (SIs) and fatty acids (FAs) as ecological tracers, examine the influence of diet/food web structure, trophic level, sex, age, time of collection and lipid content as confounding factors on POP temporal trends in Hudson Bay polar bears.3.To provide information to Hudson Bay indigenous communities participating in the study, as well as other communities, on the levels, changes and fate of POPs in polar bears.4. To archive the remaining polar bear tissue samples that were collected in Environment and Climate Change Canadas National Wildlife Specimen Bank (ECCC-NWSB), NWRC, Carleton University.