Baffinland gets nod from Nunavut board to extend Mary River operation until year-end

Cecilia Jamasmie | September 23, 2022 

Mary River iron ore mine site on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, (Image courtesy of Baffinland Iron Mines.)

Baffinland Iron Mines has received a positive recommendation from the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) to temporarily increase production at its Mary River iron ore mine in Canada’s Nunavut territory to 6 million tonnes through to the end of the year.


The decision, the company said, could help it keep the mine viable and save more than 1,100 jobs off the chopping block this fall.

Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, however, has the final word and there hasn’t been any information on when that decision will come.

“Out of care and concern for the livelihoods of our employees and their families, we are delaying the issuance of termination notices until October 20th, which is the outside date the minister’s office has indicated it will be able to respond to the NIRB recommendation,” the company said.

While Baffinland is pleased about the NIRB’s decision, it is urging the minister to approve the production increase for the rest of the year.

Vandal is also still considering whether to approve Mary River’s Phase 2, which proposes a railway to Milne Inlet, as well as an increase in allowed shipments to 12 tonnes of iron ore a year, with eventual plans to increase that amount. The NIRB earlier rejected that plan.

Expansion detractors have argued for months that expanding the mine’s capacity would affect the world’s densest narwhal population.

Narwhals are a type of whale with a long, spear-like tusk that protrudes from its head. The marine mammal is an important predator in Eclipse Sound and other Arctic waters, as well a major food source for Inuit in the region.

Last year, a group of hunters from Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet blocked access to the mine in protest of the company’s ice breaking practices due to their negative impacts on narwhals. The company agreed to avoid ice breaking in spring, based on “the precautionary principle that is the foundation of our adaptive management plan,” Baffinland’s CEO said in a statement at the time.

Canada rejects Arctic mine expansion project after years of fierce protest

Community members and campaigners have hailed the move as a win for vulnerable marine ecosystem and wildlife

An aerial view of Baffinland's Mary River iron ore mine on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. Photograph: All Canada Photos/Alamy

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

THE GUARDIAN

Thu 17 Nov 2022

Canada has rejected a mine expansion project in the Arctic after years of uncertainty and fierce protest, in what community members and campaigners say is a win for the vulnerable marine ecosystem and wildlife.

Baffinland Iron Mines’ planned expansion to its Mary River site would have seen it double output to 12m tonnes of iron ore. To bring the ore to market, the mine also said it needed to build a 110km railway to a port near the community of Pond Inlet as well as doubling its shipping.



Cop27: coral conservation groups alarmed over ‘catastrophic losses’

The company – the biggest private-sector employer in Nunavut territory with nearly 2,600 workers – has said the expansion is critical to remaining profitable.

On Wednesday evening, after repeated delays, Canada’s northern affairs minister, Dan Vandal, rejected the company’s application, citing fears from Inuit groups that the expansion could have devastating effects on marine mammals, including key populations of narwhal. The region is home to the densest narwhal population in the world – an important food source for Inuit communities.
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That decision comes six months after the Nunavut Impact Review Board came out against the expansion. The board held in-person meetings in Pond Inlet, the community closest to the mine, as well as in the territorial capital of Iqaluit. After hearing from community members and the mine, it concluded the project could result in “significant adverse eco-systemic effects on marine mammals and fish, caribou and other terrestrial wildlife, along with vegetation and freshwater” as well as “significant adverse socio-economic effects on Inuit harvesting, culture, land use and food security in Nunavut”. The board’s review lasted four years, the longest in its history.

In his Wednesday decision, Vandal wrote that he and other ministers had “carefully considered” the proposal, along with the input from Inuit groups, concluding that the project “should not proceed at this time”.

Vandal said both the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated wrote to him and raised concerns about the proposed expansion, arguing adverse effects couldn’t be “prevented, mitigated, or adaptively managed under the proposed mitigations”.

In his decision, the minister acknowledged the economic significance of the project, given that Baffinland’s operations make up nearly a quarter of the territory’s GDP.
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“However, we have taken particular note of the conclusions of the board, the designated Inuit organizations and the Hunters and Trappers Organizations … who have expressed a lack of confidence that Phase 2, as currently conceived, can proceed without unacceptable impacts,” he wrote.

Many community members have said they aren’t against the mine, but worry the expansion will create irreversible damage.

The decision has been met with approval from marine conservationists. “Our first reaction was relief. It was a very arduous and protracted hearing process. But in that process, communities were loud and clear. They expressed a lot of concern about this,” said Chris Debicki, a vice-president and counsel at the conservation organization Oceans North. “But there are still unresolved issues with respect to the impact of mining and shipping on the ecosystem.” Among their concerns are the effects of the iron dust from large trucks, leading to the possible contamination of sea ice.

Others say they have been overlooked by decision makers in Iqaluit. Under the landmark 1993 Nunavut Agreement, which established a number of key rights for Inuit on their lands, Baffinland is required to negotiate a benefit agreement with the Inuit groups that represent residents of the territory.

Jerry Natanine, mayor of Clyde River, previously told the Guardian he and others were trying to form a new group that would have the power to negotiate royalty payments and have greater say over projects that could affect their communities.

In February 2021, a group of hunters blocked access to the mine in protest, braving frigid temperatures for nearly a week. Seven hunters, some of whom travelled from Clyde River, used snowmobiles and sleds to block the airstrip and service road to the Mary River Mine as temperatures dipped to -30C (-22F).

“The decision comes from years of disappointment from Inuit organizations that don’t look out for our behalf,” Natanine said at the time, adding that hunters are forced to “fight for their culture and their way of life” when projects are imposed on them.

Baffinland, jointly owned by ArcelorMittal and the Houston private equity firm the Energy and Minerals Group, had previously tried to ease concerns over the project, saying it is confident wildlife will not be affected by increased ore shipments. The company has also touted more than C$2bn (US$1.5bn) in royalties paid to Inuit over the mine’s 30-year lifespan.

The company was expected to issue a statement on Thursday in response to the federal government’s decision.

Glencore Canadian mine workers reach 'tentative agreement' that could end three-month strike

Naimul Karim - 1h ago

Glencore's Raglan mine in Nunavik, Que., produces 40,000 tonnes of nickel annually. Six-hundred and thirty workers at the mine have been on strike since the end of May.

© Provided by Financial Post

Workers at Quebec’s largest nickel mine this week reached a “tentative agreement” with owner Glencore PLC that could restart production more than three months after 630 union members went on strike demanding better working conditions.

The work stoppage began on May 27 after 98 per cent of union workers agreed to push for a better work culture and criticized the increased use of subcontracting. In July, Glencore offered workers a new deal, which included a yearly compensation of at least $130,000, twice the average pay in Quebec, but 77 per cent of the workers rejected it.

“The 630 union members who work at the Raglan mine in Nunavik will be called upon to vote over the next two weeks,” the United Steelworkers Union said about Glencore’s latest offer in a press release on Monday.

A union official refused to disclose the terms of the offer, but on Wednesday said the strike would continue until the result of the vote is known. Meetings will be held next week so that members can better understand the new agreement.

Glencore wasn’t immediately available for a comment.

The Raglan mine in northern Quebec has been in operation since 1997 and annually produces about 40,000 tonnes of nickel. It includes four underground mines called Kikialik, Qakimajurq, Katinniq and Mine 2. Production at the mine has largely been on hold since the strike began.

As one of the largest producers of nickel in Canada, a prolonged closure of the mine could hurt global supplies of Class 1 nickel, which is needed to manufacture electric vehicles, said Patricia Mohr, a former vice-president of economics at the Bank of Nova Scotia, and now an independent analyst who follows battery metals.

In May, Eric Savard, president of the mine’s union, said in a press release that Glencore had been “continually pushing the limits” and that it had reached a point where those who refused to work overtime were given the “cold shoulder.”

Savard added that the mine often had “many more contractors” at the site than unionized workers, which meant fewer economic benefits for the local economy.

Glencore, however, denied the allegations at the time and said the mine had an 86-per-cent satisfaction rate based on internal surveys.

About 1,000 kilometres to the north, the jobs of more than 1,000 workers at a mine in Nunavut remain uncertain as their fortunes depend upon whether Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s extraction permit is renewed and enhanced by the federal government.

Workers received termination notices on July 31, but the company said it would rescind them if it gets a permit to increase its annual extraction limit of iron ore to six million tonnes from its original allowance of 4.2 million tonnes.

Some 1,100 workers are scheduled to be let go over two rounds on Sept. 25 and Oct. 11.

The federal government is waiting on a report by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB), the territory’s environmental assessment agency. The feds asked the board to provide its recommendation by late August, but the NIRB on Aug. 25 said it intends to submit its report on Sept. 19, which is a week before the terminations begin.

“While the board understands that this timeline is greater than what was requested by the minister and urged by Baffinland and several parties, the board has balanced the urgency of the decision, with the board’s obligation to conduct a thorough assessment in the circumstances of each proposal,” NIRB’s chairperson Marjorie Kaviq Kaluraq, said in a letter .

Peter Ackman, a spokesperson for Baffinland, said the company was “optimistic” its permit would be renewed and the jobs “will be saved.”

But the union representing the workers say that the delay has disrupted the lives of the miners. “Its not realistic to issue a decision a few days before mass layoffs are about to start,” said Mike Gallagher, business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers.

“It’s not like throwing a switch on or off. People have to plan. They start to make other arrangements. This erodes the workforce.”

Gallagher added that he wrote to the Ministry of Northern Affairs on Tuesday asking the federal government to exercise its authority by renewing the permit and “saving the jobs.”

• Email: nkarim@postmedia.com | Twitter: naimonthefield

Nunavut hunters agree to end protest at iron ore mine after offer of a meeting

Lawyers for Inuit hunters blocking an airstrip and road at an iron ore mine in Nunavut say the group will end its protest.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The blockade started a week ago after seven hunters travelled two days and over 150 kilometres to get to Baffinland's Mary River mine site.

It ended after the regional Inuit organization and land-claim body offered the hunters a face-to-face meeting, which they accepted.

The hunters, who call themselves the Nuluujat Land Guardians, were protesting Baffinland's proposal to double its output and build a 110-kilometre railway to the ocean.

The hunters are to stay at a nearby cabin until at least Friday, then make the journey back to Pond Inlet where they will meet with local leaders.

On Wednesday, a Nunavut judge ordered the hunters to clear the airstrip so mine workers could fly home.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Brand new bulk carrier brings North Canadian ore to China via Arctic route

Ice-class carrier Nordic Nuluujaak makes its first voyage on the Northern Sea Route as sea-ice quickly accumulates on the far northern waters.


Bulk carrier Nordic Nuluujaak on the Northern Sea Route

By Atle Staalesen
October 25, 2021

The 229 meter long ship that was delivered by the Guangzhou International (GSI) Shipyard in May this year on the 10th of October set out from the Milne Inlet in northern Canada. On board is ore from the Baffinland Iron Mines.

The vessel sailed south through the Baffin Bay and then turned north in the Labrador Sea. By October 25th, the vessel had made it through the Barents Sea and into Russia’s Kara Sea. It is estimated to reach its destination in China on November 10.

The Nordic Nuluujaak has ice-class 1A and is the first in a fleet of four vessels to be delivered by the Chinese shipyard. It is owned and managed by Nordic Bulk Carriers, a Danish company that is part of the U.S Pangaea Logistics Solutions.

Arctic sea-ice in the period 17-19th October 2021. Map by aari.ru

It is the Arctic maiden voyage for a vessel that is designed for shipping in extreme far northern conditions.

The Nordic Nuluujaak is made for challenging Arctic conditions, says Pangaea CEO Ed Coll. It is built in close cooperation with the Baffinland Iron Mines, he told ship-technology.com.

The ice-class notwithstanding, the Nordic Nuluujaak will rarely be able to ship independently through rough and icy Arctic waters. The 1A classification allows for sailing only through one-year Arctic ice up to about 30 centimetre thick.

The Nordic Nuluujaak enters the Northern Sea Route as the Arctic waters are about to freeze and ice-maps show that parts of the Vilkitsky Strait, as well as the East Siberian Sea now has more than 30 cm thick sea-ice.

As the ship on Monday this week set course for the Vilkitsky Strait, it was accompanied by nuclear icebreaker Vaiygach.

There are now only few ships left in the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route. Ship traffic maps show that there are less than 20 vessels in the waters between the Vilkitsky Strait and Bering Strait. Among them are three vessels from the United Heavy Lift. Two of them, the Uhl Flash and Uhl Faith are sailing westwards through the East Siberian Sea. None of them have high ice-class.

It is not the first time that iron ore is shipped from Canada’s far northern Milne Inlet to China through the Northern Sea Route. In November 2018, did two ships, the Nordic Olympic and Nordic Oshima sail the same route. Also in 2019 did a ship carry ore on the route.

 

Barents Sea

Marginal Sea

All images

The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters. Known among Russians in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the current name of the sea is after the historical Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz.

Wikipedia

Arctic Ocean: climate change is flooding the remote north with light – and new species

Carlos Duarte, Adjunct Professor of Marine Ecology, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Dorte Krause-Jensen, Professor, Marine Ecology, Aarhus University, Karen Filbee-Dexter, Research Fellow in Marine

At just over 14 million square kilometres, the Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world’s oceans. It is also the coldest. An expansive raft of sea ice floats near its centre, expanding in the long, cold, dark winter, and contracting in the summer, as the Sun climbs higher in the sky

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© (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) 

A boat navigates at night next to large icebergs in eastern Greenland.

Every year, usually in September, the sea ice cover shrinks to its lowest level. The tally in 2020 was a meagre 3.74 million square kilometres, the second-smallest measurement in 42 years, and roughly half of what it was in 1980. Each year, as the climate warms, the Arctic is holding onto less and less ice.

The effects of global warming are being felt around the world, but nowhere on Earth are they as dramatic as they are in the Arctic. The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than any other place on Earth, ushering in far-reaching changes to the Arctic Ocean, its ecosystems and the 4 million people who live in the Arctic.

This story is part of Oceans 21

Five profiles open our series on the global ocean, delving into ancient Indian Ocean trade networks, Pacific plastic pollution, Arctic light and life, Atlantic fisheries and the Southern Ocean’s impact on global climate. All brought to you from The Conversation’s international network.

Some of them are unexpected. The warmer water is pulling some species further north, into higher latitudes. The thinner ice is carrying more people through the Arctic on cruise ships, cargo ships and research vessels. Ice and snow can almost entirely black out the water beneath it, but climate change is allowing more light to flood in.
Artificial light in the polar night

Light is very important in the Arctic. The algae which form the foundation of the Arctic Ocean’s food web convert sunlight into sugar and fat, feeding fish and, ultimately, whales, polar bears and humans.

At high latitudes in the Arctic during the depths of winter, the Sun stays below the horizon for 24 hours. This is called the polar night, and at the North Pole, the year is simply one day lasting six months, followed by one equally long night.

Researchers studying the effects of ice loss deployed moored observatories – anchored instruments with a buoy — in an Arctic fjord in the autumn of 2006, before the fjord froze. When sampling started in the spring of 2007, the moorings had been in place for almost six months, collecting data throughout the long and bitter polar night.

What they detected changed everything.

© Michael O. Snyder

 The polar night can last for weeks and even months in the high Arctic.
Life in the dark

At that time, scientists assumed the polar night was utterly uninteresting. A dead period in which life lies dormant and the ecosystem sinks into a dark and frigid standby mode. Not much was expected to come of these measurements, so researchers were surprised when the data showed that life doesn’t pause at all.

Arctic zooplankton — tiny microscopic animals that eat algae — take part in something called diel vertical migration beneath the ice and in the dead of the polar night. Sea creatures in all the oceans of the world do this, migrating to depth during the day to hide from potential predators in the dark, and surfacing at night to feed.

Organisms use light as a cue to do this, so they shouldn’t logically be able to during the polar night. We now understand the polar night to be a riot of ecological activity. The normal rhythms of daily life continue in the gloom. Clams open and close cyclically, seabirds hunt in almost total darkness, ghost shrimps and sea snails gather in kelp forests to reproduce, and deep-water species such as the helmet jellyfish surface when it’s dark enough to stay safe from predators.

For most of the organisms active during this period, the Moon, stars and aurora borealis likely give important cues that guide their behaviour, especially in parts of the Arctic not covered by sea ice. But as the Arctic climate warms and human activities in the region ramp up, these natural light sources will in many places be invisible, crowded out by much stronger artificial light.

© Muratart/Shutterstock 

The northern lights dance in the sky over Tromsø, Norway.

Artificial light

Almost a quarter of all land masses are exposed to scattered artificial light at night, as it’s reflected back to the ground from the atmosphere. Few truly dark places remain, and light from cities, coastlines, roads and ships is visible as far as outer space.

Even in sparsely populated areas of the Arctic, light pollution is noticeable. Shipping routes, oil and gas exploration and fisheries extend into the region as the sea ice retreats, drawing artificial light into the otherwise inky black polar night.

© Michael O. Snyder

Creatures which have adapted to the polar night over millions of years are now suddenly exposed to artificial light.

No organisms have had the opportunity to properly adapt to these changes – evolution works on a much longer timescale. Meanwhile, the harmonic movements of the Earth, Moon and Sun have provided reliable cues to Arctic animals for millennia. Many biological events, such as migration, foraging and breeding are highly attuned to their gentle predictability.

In a recent study carried out in the high Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, between mainland Norway and the north pole, the onboard lights of a research vessel were found to affect fish and zooplankton at least 200 metres down. Disturbed by the sudden intrusion of light, the creatures swirling beneath the surface reacted dramatically, with some swimming towards the beam, and others swimming violently away.

It’s difficult to predict the effect artificial light from ships newly navigating the ice-free Arctic will have on polar night ecosystems that have known darkness for longer than modern humans have existed. How the rapidly growing human presence in the Arctic will affect the ecosystem is concerning, but there are also unpleasant questions for researchers. If much of the information we’ve gathered about the Arctic came from scientists stationed on brightly lit boats, how “natural” is the state of the ecosystem we have reported?

© Michael O. Snyder 

Research in the Arctic could change considerably over the coming years to reduce light pollution.

Arctic marine science is about to enter a new era with autonomous and remotely operated platforms, capable of operating without any light, making measurements in complete darkness.

Underwater forests

As sea ice retreats from the shores of Greenland, Norway, North America and Russia, periods with open water are getting longer, and more light is reaching the sea floor. Suddenly, coastal ecosystems that have been hidden under ice for 200,000 years are seeing the light of day. This could be very good news for marine plants like kelp – large brown seaweeds that thrive in cold water with enough light and nutrients.

Anchored to the sea floor and floating with the tide and currents, some species of kelp can grow up to 50 metres (175 feet) – about the same height as Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London. But kelp are typically excluded from the highest latitudes because of the shade cast by sea ice and its scouring effect on the seabed.

© Ignacio Garrido/

Arctic Kelp Badderlocks, or winged kelp, off the coast of Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic.

These lush underwater forests are set to grow and thrive as sea ice shrinks. Kelp are not a new arrival to the Arctic though. They were once part of the traditional Greenlandic diet, and polar researchers and explorers observed them along northern coasts more than a century ago.

Some species of kelp may have colonised Arctic coasts after the last ice age, or spread out from small pockets where they’d held on. But most kelp forests in the Arctic are smaller and more restricted to patches in deeper waters, compared to the vast swathes of seaweed that line coasts like California’s in the US.\

© Ignacio Garrido/

Arctic Kelp The polar night can last for weeks and even months in the high Arctic.

Recent evidence from Norway and Greenland shows kelp forests are already expanding and increasing their ranges poleward, and these ocean plants are expected to get bigger and grow faster as the Arctic warms, creating more nooks for species to live in and around. The full extent of Arctic kelp forests remains largely unseen and uncharted, but modelling can help determine how much they have shifted and grown in the Arctic since the 1950s.

© Filbee-Dexter et al. (2018) Known locations of kelp forests and global trends in predicted average summer surface temperature increase over next two decades, according to IPCC models.

A new carbon sink

Although large seaweeds come in all shapes and sizes, many are remarkably similar to trees, with long, trunk-like but flexible bodies called stipes. The kelp forest canopy is filled with the flat blades like leaves, while holdfasts act like roots by anchoring the seaweed to rocks below.

Some types of Arctic kelp can grow over ten metres and form large and complex canopies suspended in the water column, with a shaded and protected understorey. Much like forests on land, these marine forests provide habitats, nursery areas and feeding grounds for many animals and fish, including cod, pollack, crabs, lobsters and sea urchins.

© Ignacio Garrido/ArcticKelp 

Kelp forests offer lots of nooks and crannies and surfaces to settle on, making them rich in wildlife.

Kelp are fast growers, storing carbon in their leathery tissue as they do. So what does their expansion in the Arctic mean for the global climate? Like restoring forests on land, growing underwater kelp forests can help to slow climate change by diverting carbon from the atmosphere.

Better yet, some kelp material breaks off and is swept out of shallow coastal waters and into the deep ocean where it’s effectively removed from the Earth’s carbon cycle. Expanding kelp forests along the Earth’s extensive Arctic coasts could become a growing carbon sink that captures the CO₂ humans emit and locks it away in the deep sea.

What’s happening with kelp in the Arctic is fairly unique – these ocean forests are embattled in most other parts of the world. Overall, the global extent of kelp forests is on a downward trend because of ocean heatwaves, pollution, warming temperatures, and outbreaks of grazers like sea urchins.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not all good news. Encroaching kelp forests could push out unique wildlife in the high Arctic. Algae living under the ice will have nowhere to go, and could disappear altogether. More temperate kelp species may replace endemic Arctic kelps such as Laminaria solidungula. 

© Ignacio Garrido/ArcticKelp 

A crab finds refuge on Laminaria solidungula

But kelp are just one set of species among many pushing further and deeper into the region as the ice melts.

Arctic invasions

Milne Inlet, on north Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, sees more marine traffic than any other port in Arctic Canada. Most days during the open-water period, 300-metre-long ships leave the port laden with iron ore from the nearby Mary River Mine. Between 71 and 82 ships pass through the area annually, most heading to — or coming from ports in northern Europe.

Cruise ships, coast guard vessels, pleasure yachts, research icebreakers, cargo supply ships and rigid inflatable boats full of tourists also glide through the area. Unprecedented warming and declining sea ice has attracted new industries and other activities to the Arctic. Communities like Pond Inlet have seen marine traffic triple in the past two decades.

© Kimberly Howland 

Passengers from a cruise ship arrive in Pond Inlet, Nunavut.

These ships come to the Arctic from all over the world, carrying a host of aquatic hitchhikers picked up in Rotterdam, Hamburg, Dunkirk and elsewhere. These species — some too small to see with the naked eye — are hidden in the ballast water pumped into on-board tanks to stabilise the ship. They also stick to the hull and other outer surfaces, called “biofouling.”

Some survive the voyage to the Arctic and are released into the environment when the ballast water is discharged and cargo loaded. Those that maintain their hold on the outer surface may release eggs, sperm or larvae.

Many of these organisms are innocuous, but some may be invasive newcomers that can cause harm. Research in Canada and Norway has already shown non-native invasive species like bay and acorn barnacles can survive ship transits to the Arctic. This raises a risk for Arctic ecosystems given that invasive species are one of the top causes for extinctions worldwide.

Expanded routes

Concern about invasive species extends far beyond the community of Pond Inlet. Around 4 million people live in the Arctic, many of them along the coasts that provide nutrients and critical habitat for a wide array of animals, from Arctic char and ringed seals to polar bear, bowhead whales and millions of migratory birds.

As waters warm, the shipping season is becoming longer, and new routes, like the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route (along Russia’s Arctic coast), are opening up. Some researchers expect a trans-Arctic route across the North Pole might be navigable by mid-century. The increased ship traffic magnifies the numbers and kinds of organisms transported into Arctic waters, and the progressively more hospitable conditions improve their odds of survival.

Prevention is the number one way to keep invasive species out of the Arctic. Most ships must treat their ballast water, using chemicals or other processes, and/or exchange it to limit the movement of harmful organisms to new locations. Guidelines also recommend ships use special coatings on the hulls and clean them regularly to prevent biofouling. But these prevention measures are not always reliable, and their efficacy in colder environments is poorly understood.

The next best approach is to detect invaders as soon as possible once they arrive, to improve chances for eradication or suppression. But early detection requires widespread monitoring, which can be challenging in the Arctic. Keeping an eye out for the arrival of a new species can be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack, but northern communities may offer a solution.

Researchers in Norway, Alaska and Canada have found a way to make that search easier by singling out species that have caused harm elsewhere and that could endure Arctic environmental conditions. Nearly two dozen potential invaders show a high chance for taking hold in Arctic Canada

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© Shutterstock The red king crab was intentionally introduced to the Barents Sea in the 1960s, but is now spreading south along the Norwegian coast.

Among these is the cold-adapted red king crab, native to the Sea of Japan, Bering Sea and North Pacific. It was intentionally introduced to the Barents Sea in the 1960s to establish a fishery and is now spreading south along the Norwegian coast and in the White Sea. It is a large, voracious predator implicated in substantial declines of harvested shellfish, sea urchins and other larger, slow moving bottom species, with a high likelihood of surviving transport in ballast water.

Another is the common periwinkle, which ruthlessly grazes on lush aquatic plants in shoreline habitats, leaving behind bare or encrusted rock. It has also introduced a parasite on the east coast of North America that causes black spot disease in fishes, which stresses adult fishes and makes them unpalatable, kills juveniles and causes intestinal damage to birds and mammals that eat them.

Tracking genetic remnants

New species like these could affect the fish and mammals people hunt and eat, if they were to arrive in Pond Inlet. After just a few years of shipping, a handful of possibly non-native species have already been discovered, including the invasive red-gilled mudworm (Marenzellaria viridis), and a potentially invasive tube dwelling amphipod. Both are known to reach high densities, alter the characteristics of the seafloor sediment and compete with native species

© Kimberly Howland A cargo ship passes through Milne Inlet, Nunavut.

Baffinland, the company that runs the Mary River Mine, is seeking to double its annual output of iron ore. If the expansion proceeds, up to 176 ore carriers will pass through Milne Inlet during the open-water season.

Although the future of Arctic shipping remains uncertain, it’s an upward trend that needs to be watched. In Canada, researchers are working with Indigenous partners in communities with high shipping activity — including Churchill, Manitoba; Pond Inlet and Iqaluit in Nunavut; Salluit, Quebec and Nain, Newfoundland — to establish an invasive species monitoring network. One of the approaches includes collecting water and testing it for genetic remnants shed from scales, faeces, sperm and other biological material.

© Christopher Mckindsey

 Members of the 2019 field team from Pond Inlet and Salluit filter eDNA from water samples collected from Milne Inlet.

This environmental DNA (eDNA) is easy to collect and can help detect organisms that might otherwise be difficult to capture or are in low abundance. The technique has also improved baseline knowledge of coastal biodiversity in other areas of high shipping, a fundamental step in detecting future change.

Some non-native species have already been detected in the Port of Churchill using eDNA surveillance and other sampling methods, including jellyfish, rainbow smelt and an invasive copepod species.

Efforts are underway to expand the network across the Arctic as part of the Arctic Council’s Arctic Invasive Alien Species Strategy to reduce the spread of invasive species.

The Arctic is often called the frontline of the climate crisis, and because of its rapid rate of warming, the region is beset by invasions of all kinds, from new species to new shipping routes. These forces could entirely remake the ocean basin within the lifetimes of people alive today, from frozen, star-lit vistas, populated by unique communities of highly adapted organisms, to something quite different.

The Arctic is changing faster than scientists can document, yet there will be opportunities, such as growing carbon sinks, that could benefit the wildlife and people who live there. Not all changes to our warming world will be wholly negative. In the Arctic, as elsewhere, there are winners and losers.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Jørgen Berge receives funding from the Norwegian Research Council (300333).

Carlos Duarte receives funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the Independent Research Fund of Denmark.

Dorte Krause-Jensen receives funding from various governmental research funds, such as the Independent Research Fund, Denmark, and private research funds, including the Velux Foundations.

Karen Filbee-Dexter receives funding from ArcticNet, the Norwegian Blue Forest Network, the Australian Research Council, and the Norwegian Research Council (BlueConnect).

Kimberly Howland receives funding from Fisheries and Ocean Canada; Natural Resources Canada and Polar Knowledge Canada.

Philippe Archambault receives funding from ArcticNet.

Shipping frenzy threatens Indigenous food security

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

Arctic shipping and the noise and environmental pollution left in its wake are driving narwhals and other animals farther away from those who depend on them.

Lisa Koperqualuk points to the Inuit community of Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), a northern Baffin Island hamlet with a population of around 1,500, as an example of how shipping has affected Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland stretching through Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland.

Over the past decade, the number of ships has increased in Mittimatalik’s waters. The increase of ships includes shipping vessels transporting iron from the Mary River Mine on Baffin Island 160 kilometres south of the community, as well as cruise and cargo ships, carrying both tourists and supplies to the North. It’s caused narwhals to veer far from their normal migratory routes to escape the noise and environmental pollution of shipping, Koperqualuk said. Over the past five years, the average number of ships passing through Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) because of the mine is around 71, Peter Akman, head of stakeholder relations and communications, told Canada's National Observer. However, that number was around 10 ships lower in 2022, as numbers can fluctuate depending on the size of the ships, Akman added.

In 2022, 22 cruise ships visited Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) with more ships expected in 2023, according to a territorial website commenting on the town's infrastructure plan. A handful of private yachts also visit the island throughout the shipping season, according to Nunatsiaq News.

That, in turn, has forced Inuit hunters from Mittimatalik to adapt and travel long distances to find narwhals and other marine life. Meat from narwhals and other whales is an important cultural food, often referred to in Inuit communities as country food for its comfort and symbolism of home.

Koperqualuk, vice-chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and president of the Canadian wing of the Inuit political organization, attended the International Maritime Organization’s meeting last week to advocate for Inuit demands, including new guidelines for underwater noise and reductions to greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping industry. The outcome was disappointing for her and other Indigenous communities to the south.

Koperqualuk told Canada’s National Observer new voluntary guidelines for underwater noise were agreed upon at the IMO, which is a United Nations agency responsible for regulating international shipping. However, they are dependent upon the “trust” and “goodwill” of individual ship owners. There are no mechanisms to ensure the ships comply, Koperqualuk said.



Baffinland, the company who operates Mary River Mine, told Canada's National Observer that they use several mitigation measures to help curb effects on marine life, Akman said.

The company employs six full-time and four part-time Inuit shipping monitors based in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet) to address community concerns and questions. The Inuit shipping monitors also track vessels in the region and report when ships exceed speed limits or stray from a set route.

Ships that carry product for the mine are confined to a narrow shipping route, travel in convoys to reduce underwater sound, and are restricted to a maximum speed of nine knots, which is around 16 kilometres an hour, Akman said.

The company also tracks narwhal numbers and shares it with a working group composed of government agencies, non-governmental organizations and Inuit-led organizations.

"We have voluntarily implemented these strict mitigation measures to reduce the potential impact of our shipping activities on marine mammals, especially narwhal," Akman said.

However, until shipping can move away from fossil fuels like diesel and natural gas, the industry will still pollute waters, including through black carbon. IMO members agreed to a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 when compared to 2008 levels, which would keep global warming to 1.7 C, Bloomberg reports. But that number fell short of the 1.5 C limit that Inuit and Indigenous communities in the South Pacific were demanding. The shipping industry will reach its share of the world’s carbon budget — which also aims to limit warming to 1.5 C — by approximately 2032, according to Bloomberg.

Koperqualuk called the Pacific islanders “climate champions” for pushing the IMO for reductions and believed it was those communities that secured a better deal.

“If it hadn't been for them, I think the deal, the new strategy would have been still weaker; the outcome could have been worse,” she said.

Inuit share the same values and viewpoints as Pacific islanders because both regions share the same vulnerability to a changing climate, as well as a dependence on ocean ecosystems.

The federal government has acknowledged the Arctic is warming at four times the speed of the rest of the planet, creating drastic changes to the environment and Inuit way of life. In the South Pacific, entire islands are at risk of being submerged by sea level rise.

For example, shipping impacts the Arctic differently than in other locales due to the cold water of the Arctic Ocean, which causes sounds to travel farther, Koperqualuk said. Inuit harvesters have observed that marine life can hear ships even a day away, moving a day or two ahead of the arrival of a ship, she added.

“What we succeeded in doing was having an Inuit knowledge or Indigenous knowledge taken into consideration when operating ships as they pass through the Arctic waters.”

Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

Nunavut review board recommends against iron ore mine expansion on Baffin Island

 The Canadian Press

CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut — The Nunavut Impact Review Board is recommending the proposed expansion of an iron ore mine on the northern tip of Baffin Island should not go ahead.

Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. is seeking to expand its Mary River iron ore mine near Pond Inlet by doubling its annual output from six to 12 million tonnes.

The mine, considered one of the world's richest iron deposits, opened in 2015 and ships about six million tonnes of ore a year.

The mine says the expansion would more than double employment at the mine to more than 1,000.

The review board said Friday in a release that there is potential for the proposal to have significant and lasting negative effects on marine mammals, the marine environment, fish, caribou and other wildlife, vegetation and freshwater.

The board said these negative effects could also impact Inuit harvesting, culture, land use and food security.

"The Board has concluded that the proposal as assessed cannot be carried out in a manner that will protect the ecosystemic integrity of the Nunavut Settlement Area and that will protect and promote the existing and future well-being of the residents and communities of the Nunavut Settlement Area, and Canada more generally," the board said.

"As a result, the board has recommended to the Minister that the Phase 2 Development Proposal as assessed should not be permitted to proceed at this time."

Federal Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal thanked the board for its work and said the government will review the report and its recommendation.

"I will be taking time to review the report along with federal officials," Vandal said on Twitter. "A decision will be taken following appropriate due diligence and comprehensive analysis, including whether the duty to consult has been met or not."

The mine proposal has faced opposition, including from hunters and trappers in the community closest to the mine.

Inuit hunters said they feared an expansion of the mine could hasten the ongoing decline of a narwhal population that they rely on for food.

In a letter sent last week to the board, the Mittimatalik Hunters and Trappers Organization said the mine is already harming their ability to harvest the important food source.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2022

Arctic shippers eye release from Russian ice captivity

The 15 ships that for the last two weeks have been ice-locked in Russian Arctic waters see release coming as a second icebreaker makes its way into the East Siberian Sea.

Finnish bulk carrier Kumpola escorted through the East Siberian Sea. Photo: ESL Shipping

By Atle Staalesen
November 16, 2021

Diesel-powered icebreaker Novorossisk early this week made its way into the Chukchi Sea with course for the ships that are battling to make it out of the sea-ice in the East Siberian Sea.

The vessels, among them an oil tanker and several fully loaded bulk carriers, have been captured in thick sea-ice in the far eastern Arctic waters since early November as an early freeze took captains and shipping companies by surprise.

Over the last weeks, only one icebreaker, the nuclear-powered Vaigach, has been available for escorts through the increasingly icy waters. That has been insufficient to aid the many vessels that have been on their way across the Northern Sea Route.

Over the past years, ice conditions in late October and early November have allowed extensive shipping along the vast Russian Arctic coast. This year, however, large parts of the remote Arctic waters were already in late October covered by sea-ice. There is now an ice layer more than 30 cm thick cross most of the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea. And in the strait separating the mainland with the Island of Wrangel is an area with more than a meter thick multi-year old ice.

The UHL Fusion are among the ships now escorted eastwards by icebreaker Vaigach

Icebreaker Vaigach has over the past days escorted four westbound vessels to the New Siberian Islands and subsequently assisted an eastbound group of vessels towards the island of Wrangel. As the Novorossisk makes it into the area, the Vaigach is expected to return westwards to escort the first group of ships from the New Siberian Islands and towards ice-free waters in the Kara Sea.

Among the ships on the route is the Finnish bulk carrier Kumpola that a is on its way back to Europe from Korea. In the area are also two carriers with iron ore from the Baffinland Iron Mines in northern Canada, as well as two carriers with iron from from Murmansk.

Among the ships is also oil tanker Vladimir Rusanov, as well as general cargo ship UHL Fusion.

In addition comes six vessels ice-locked in the waters near Pevek on the north Chukotka coast.

According to authorities in the Chukotka region, also nuclear powered icebreaker Yamal was to be sent to assist the vessels. However, as of the 16 of November, the icebreaker was stilled moored in Murmansk. The same was the case with sister ship 50 Let Pobedy.

 

Barents Sea

Marginal Sea

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The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters. Known among Russians in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the current name of the sea is after the historical Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz.

Wikipedia

Canada gives mineral-rich Arctic region of Nunavut control over its resources

THAT MAKES IT A PROVINCE

Reuters | January 18, 2024 |

The Northern Lights over the Meliadine mine in the Kivalliq district of Nunavut. Agnico Eagle photo

Canada on Thursday formally gave the giant Arctic territory of Nunavut control over its reserves of gold, diamonds, iron, cobalt and rare earth metals, a move that could boost exploration and development.


Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a devolution agreement in the Nunavut capital Iqaluit with Premier P.J. Akeeagok, granting the territory the right to collect royalties that would otherwise go to the federal government.

Nunavut, a region of growing strategic importance as climate change makes shipping lanes and resources more accessible, covers 810,000 square miles (2.1 million square km) but has a population of only 40,000. An almost complete lack of infrastructure means operating costs are exorbitant.

“We can now bring decision-making about our land and waters home. It means that we, the people most invested in our homeland, will be the ones managing our natural resources,” Akeeagok said in a statement.

Challenges include harsh weather, lack of infrastructure, high costs, major social problems and a largely unskilled and undereducated Inuit aboriginal workforce.

Nunavut, created in 1999, was the only one of Canada’s three northern territories that had not negotiated devolution. Talks on the agreement started in October 2014.

Companies active in Nunavut include Agnico-Eagle Mines, operator of the territory’s only working gold mine.

Nunavut is home to some of the minerals critical for battery production. Canada has pledged billions in incentives to woo companies involved in all levels of the electric vehicle supply chain as the world seeks to cut carbon emissions.

But operating mines can be a complex affair in Nunavut, where some communities are concerned about potential pollution.

In 2022, Ottawa rejected a request by Baffinland Iron Mine Corp – part-owned by ArcelorMittal – to double production at its Mary River iron ore mine in the north of Nunavut, citing the environmental impact.

In 2020, Canada rejected Shandong Gold Mining’s bid for an indebted local gold producer amid concerns about a Chinese state-owned entity operating in the Arctic.

(By Natalie Maerzluft and David Ljunggren; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)