Up the Coast

Travelling up the breathtaking coastline towards the Torngat Mountains of Labrador, there were two important stops along the way. The first was an early morning array of surface sediment and deep cores taken offshore of Nain, the northernmost permanent settlement in Labrador. Surface sediment sampling and bottom mapping were the main objectives at this site, as well as deeper cores that will be used to compare fluctuations in microorganisms that are associated with the retreating sea ice.

Dave and Sheena (DFO) admiring the mountains; Photo by: Kathryn Murray

The second site was north towards the Saglek Fjord, where baited and drop camera footage was taken, as well as nets deployed for zooplankton and deep water fishes. The nets are able to be programmed to deploy at exact depths, and are all designed using different size netting to sample specific populations of creatures living in the waters below. Live zooplankton collections are kept in tanks in the cold labs onboard the ship to study nutrient cycling through the water column, and preserved specimens will go back with researchers from all over Canada to identify and map faunal distributions along the coast and into the Arctic.

Photo by: Kathryn Murray

Through a joint effort between the Department of Fisheries and Ocean, Parks Canada, Amundsen Science, and the Nunatsiavut government for their marine spatial planning initiative Imappivut (https://imappivut.com/), these two stations were chosen to help fill in missing spaces between the rich traditional knowledge of the coast and the fishing areas further out, as well as to explore the location for semi-permanent scientific moorings and as a potental marine conservation area.

With the hands-on data collections scheduled for the morning and overnight, the transit up the calm seas of the coast with the sun setting over the mountains was a gorgeous last view of land for the team before the ship turned east and headed out onto the continental slope.