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Fish Kill at Tasiqulak Summer '02 |
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The Nunavik Reseach Centre recieved reports from the locals of Kangiqsulujjuaq that one of their favorite fishing lakes had thousands of dead arctic char washing up on their shores. After an initial observation by Reseach staff a more thorough investigation was made. Geoff Klien (fish biologist), Isabelle Cote (wildlife veternarian.), Adam Lewis (G.I.S. Anylst) and myself (wildlife student) charted a otter and flew to the lake. |
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Above you can see the inflow from the upper lake into the "problem lake" Tasiqulak. Note the blue colouration. Low phytoplankton prodution? Below you can see dead char at the bottom of the lake. Kangiqsulujjuakmiut were concerned for their lake and removed and counted all the dead fish. You can see the pile of rotting fish below right. |
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Geoff and Hank with all our cargo. |
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Myself and Tents |
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Once camp was set up we began our tests and data collection. The most probable theory on the fish kill is oxygen depletion due to the late spring melt. The ice would have effectivaly capped the lake and no oxygen would have been able to enter. To test this theory dissolved oxygen samples had to be taken. Also Geoff wanted to calculate the volume of water in the Lake to get an idea of how much oxgyen each fish had. To do this we took G.P.S. readings and a depth reading every ~10m. They were later plotted in the G.I.S. software. Isabelle was concerned that the fish kill could have been caused by a pathogen. She was occupied sampling both dead fish and recently caught fish entering the river. The local people were concerned that the entering fish might be contaminating the remaining fish so they built a fish weir to keep upcoming fish from entering the lake. Water samples were also taken for toxiclology studies becuase the possibility of contaminants was not ruled out. The results of the fish kill investigation have not been published yet. Further work is probably still requied to solve this phenomamon. |
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Adam and I with Zodiac on Tasiqulak |
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Fish Weir |
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