Contaminant concentrations in Mackenzie Delta beluga

Monitoring contaminant concentrations in marine mammals is necessary to regulate consumption guidelines for the safety, health, and well-being of northern communities which practice subsistence hunts. Each year, thanks to the partnerships with Inuvialuit hunters, new beluga samples are collected and analyzed for contaminants, and over time the accumulated data offer increasingly powerful means to detect changes (e.g. temporal trends) and relate them to environmental variables. Such monitoring efforts are especially important in light of the accelerated warming in the Arctic and sub-arctic and what this influence this may have on contaminant exposure to marine organisms.