From tracking the movement of a possible oil spill to observing patterns in the region's pinniped population, new research published at the Port of Saint John covers a wide range of topics. increase.
Under the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program, 12 projects along the Port of St. Has completed. The collected data was recently publishedonline.
``This creates a baseline or snapshot of whatSt. John Harbor is like today, so there is something to compare to in the future. You can't really monitor change if you do," said Bethany Reinhart, Deputy Project Lead for the Maritime Region.
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The $50.8 million USD made in 2017 under the Marine Conservation Plan will focus on five years of research in six coastal areas known for high shipping traffic. established to carry out.
Locations include Port of Vancouver, British Columbia; Port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia; St. Lawrence Estuary, Quebec; Port of St. John, New Jersey; Placentia Bay, New Jersey;
St. John, known for its presence in heavy industry and her one of the busiest ports in the country, was an ideal location, according to Reinhart.
“There are also fishing activities, recreational uses, and municipal inputs into the port, which have not been well studied. identified and tried to fill those gaps," Reinhart said.
Her one of 12 projects completed in the port city was Zenigata, conducted by ACAP Saint John It was a seal characterization. , an environmental non-profit organization.
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"For the past three years, we have asked our citizens to document any seals they may have seen on their travels." We've had over 100 submissions, most of them right here in St. John Harbor," said Shauna Sands, ACAP St. John's Conservation Coordinator.
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staff on two wheels Once a week, at five locations along Saint John Harbor and one on the Saint John River, we observed seals being hauled onto rocks to bask at low tide.
Using data collected by researchers at the University of New Brunswick in the 1990s, Sands said he was able to compare statistics and track trends.
"So we could actually study seals all year round, but in the 1990s seals actually migrated for the winter, so out of the year she still had seals 12 months. I'm watching," she said. she understands
Sands said she hopes to tag the seals this fall to better track their movements.
Other projects carried out under this program aimed to use fish harvester knowledge to fill gaps in marine data.
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"Northern Fundy Fishermen's Association, they collect information on surface currents in the Bay of Fundy, so they 's data is, for example, a model that can predict where oil will travel across ocean currents in the event of an oil spill," Reinhart said.
Overall, the project is not intended to weigh the "good and bad" of the Port of St. John, but only to track the current state of the port.
} "We hope that this baseline data will be used for conservation actions and management decisions. Since the data has already been collected, how can we put the data together to create a cohesive baseline of information?" You can start thinking about ,” says Reinhart.
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