{"id":94481,"date":"2026-07-23T11:15:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/community-members-help-monitor-arctic-sea-ice-algae-in-chesterfield-inlet\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:15:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:15:46","slug":"community-members-help-monitor-arctic-sea-ice-algae-in-chesterfield-inlet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/community-members-help-monitor-arctic-sea-ice-algae-in-chesterfield-inlet\/","title":{"rendered":"Community members help monitor Arctic sea ice algae in Chesterfield Inlet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 23, 2026 By Jill Westerman Northern News Services Residents of Chesterfield Inlet are helping researchers monitor sea ice algae as part of an ongoing community-based project that also supports preparedness for potential marine oil spills in the region. The Algae Watch program, now in its second year, encourages residents to record observations using the SIKU app while they are travelling on the land and sea ice. Dr. Eric Collins, an associate professor at the University of Manitoba, said the initiative is part of the larger GenICE2 project, funded by Genome Canada, which is studying how microbes respond to oil spills in Arctic marine environments. \u201cThis was the second year we ran it in Chesterfield Inlet,\u201d Collins said. \u201cWe\u2019re working with the Sapujiyiit Society and the HTO [hunters and trappers organization] there to do monitoring of the marine environment.\u201d He said the community\u2019s location at the entrance to the waterway leading to Baker Lake means vessels regularly travel through the area to serve Agnico Eagle\u2019s Amaruq gold mine. \u201cPeople in the town are quite worried about if there was an oil spill, what would happen then,\u201d Collins said. To help involve residents, researchers created Algae Watch as a way to familiarize people with the SIKU platform while collecting observations from the ice. Developed by Inuit through the Arctic Eider Society, SIKU is a free mobile app and website that allows users to record observations while travelling on the land. Hunters can share GPS tracks, document wildlife sightings and report hazardous ice conditions for others in the community. Algae identification The project focuses on microscopic algae that grow on the underside of sea ice where it meets the ocean. Participants drill a hole through the ice and look for algae, which can appear as greenish or brownish discoloured snow. Although different species of algae are present, Collins said they cannot be distinguished by sight alone. \u201cWe determine which one it is through either a microscope or using DNA sequencing, which is what we use in my lab at the University of Manitoba,\u201d he said. \u201cJust looking at it, you can only tell that it\u2019s algae.\u201d Researchers have found algae during previous fieldwork, but observations have varied, he noted. \u201cThe very first time we went out\u2026 we found algae in the ice,\u201d Collins said. \u201cThe follow-up report didn\u2019t report any algae, so I think there\u2019s a lot to be learned about when the algae is there and where it\u2019s at.\u201d He believes algae are likely more common in some coastal locations than others, and he noted that the area has not been extensively studied. Sea ice algae form the base of the Arctic marine food web. Collins said microscopic organisms \u2014 small crustaceans such as copepods, shrimp and worms \u2014 feed on the algae, followed by small fish, larger fish, and eventually marine mammals, including whales. \u201cThey\u2019re a healthy part of the ecosystem,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there was something toxic in the water, we would expect it to prevent them from growing, and then they wouldn\u2019t be able to feed the rest of the ecosystem.\u201d Community participants photograph what they find rather than collecting samples. The SIKU app automatically records the location of each observation, while project staff collect scientific samples separately for laboratory analysis. So far, researchers have not found evidence suggesting unreported oil spills in the area. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen anything like that,\u201d Collins said. Funding required The GenICE2 project will continue for at least one more year, with researchers seeking additional funding beyond 2027. Collins said his team has worked in Chesterfield Inlet for five or six years, building relationships with the local hunters and trappers organization and the Sapujiyiit Society. Discussions are also underway about expanding similar work to other Kivalliq communities, including Coral Harbour and Naujaat. The research team is also conducting oil spill experiments at the Churchill Marine Observatory in Churchill, Man., where diesel fuel is introduced into controlled ice environments to study how naturally-occurring microbes break it down. \u201cWe saw that there are microbes that grow in response to the oil and help break it down, but it takes them a long time to do that,\u201d Collins said. \u201cIf there was a real spill, we wouldn\u2019t want to wait for them to do their work. We would want to intervene.\u201d He added that responding quickly to a spill in Hudson Bay would be challenging because specialized oil spill response equipment is not currently stationed nearby. \u201cIn other parts, if you go to the Atlantic or the Pacific ports, they have a lot of equipment nearby in case of a spill,\u201d Collins said. \u201cBut in Hudson Bay there isn\u2019t that equipment nearby, so we would require the Coast Guard to kind of change their strategy.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 23, 2026 By Jill Westerman Northern News Services Residents of Chesterfield Inlet are helping researchers monitor sea ice algae as part of an ongoing community-based project that also supports preparedness for potential marine oil spills in the region. The Algae Watch program, now in its second year, encourages residents to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":94482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,4954,1],"tags":[116,4953],"class_list":["post-94481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-nunavut","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-nunavut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}