Yellowknife (Feb 04/02) - Researchers mapping the ocean floor around Tuktoyaktuk are investigating a natural phenomenon that may affect the construction of a proposed pipeline from Alaska.

Every year, drifting sea ice cuts into the ocean floor, creating gashes or "ice scours" in the ocean floor. Steve Blasco, a marine geologist with Natural Resources Canada Geological Survey, and his team are working to find out how deep those gashes run, and where they are most likely to occur.

In the first year of the five-year project, the group collected data around Richard's Island for three weeks last August. Richard's Island is the site of a potential oil drilling project. Blasco says initial data show that the gashes may run as deep as four metres.

"We used digital techniques to actually produce the equivalent of an air photo of the ocean floor, only we do it with sound instead of light," Blasco says. "From that, we discovered that the whole sea floor is completely saturated by ice scours."

The findings will dictate the depth that at which a pipeline under the Beaufort Sea would have to be buried to protect it from the cutting action of the ice. Blasco and four researchers returned to Inuvik last week to conduct workshops with natural resource technology students at Aurora College, and other interested parties, including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the Inuvialuit Renewable Resource Committees.

"We're showing them how we collect the data, and some of (the students) are interested in working on the data as projects," Blasco says.

The researchers are also collecting detailed information about the habitat on the ocean floor that will allow regulatory agencies to weigh the possible effects of a proposed underwater pipeline. Dubbed the "Up and Over Route," ArctiGas Resource Corporation is proposing to build a pipeline under the Beaufort Sea and then overland along the Mackenzie Valley.

"Our study is independent of the oil (industry) studies. Our purpose is to make sure the environment is protected," Blasco says.

Next year, the team will chart the Yukon shelf around Herschel Island.

By the end of the project, the team will have mapped most of the areas that are of interest in oil and gas exploration and pipeline development.

The $800,000 project is a joint effort among Natural Resources Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.