THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Researchers were in Fort Smith and Fort Resolution late last month to collect Slave River fish – with the help of the public – and to seek signs of impacts from Alberta's oil sands development.

Dr. Paul Jones, an associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan, measures a fish caught from the Slave River on June 25. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The four-person team came from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

"We've been doing a study on the Athabasca and Slave rivers," explained team leader Dr. Paul Jones, an associate professor at the university's School of Environment and Sustainability.

"There are concerns that chemicals, coming from the oil sands operations in Alberta in particular, are causing adverse effects on fish," Jones said. "What we are doing is sampling fish down the length of the Athabasca River, but also in the Slave, to see if chemicals are coming out of the oil sands operations."

The researchers are also looking for other contaminants in the fish – walleye, whitefish, pike and burbot.

External features were examined for signs of damage, lesions and anything abnormal. The fish were then dissected and internal organs were examined for any evidence of lesions, deformities, parasites or bacterial diseases.

The researchers will also be taking blood and tissue samples of 30 fish from each species back to their lab for further study.

Jones and his team hope to be back in Fort Smith and Fort Resolution in about three or four months to do another fish collection.

"We're hoping to do four collections over the next year," he said. "So this is the first. We would like to do one in the late fall, one in the winter probably in January, and one in the early spring next year."

When they return in several months, they also hope to provide some preliminary results from the first round of sampling, the professor said. "We'll make available whatever we can at that stage."

As for what the study may find, Jones is not promising all questions will be answered.

"Will the study clear everything in the air? I don't think so," he said. "I think its importance is that it shows the people that somebody is willing to listen to their concerns and somebody is willing to do something about it, and somebody is willing to communicate those results back to them. That's the most important thing."

Jones noted the University of Saskatchewan researchers did not see any real deformities in the fish collected from the Slave River.

However, he said he was given a couple of fish in Fort Resolution and another in Fort Smith that people saved in their freezers because they apparently have some deformities, although he pointed out some occur naturally.

Henry Beaver, a resident of Fort Smith, welcomes the study, and was on hand to help out by catching fish for the researchers.

"I think it's a good idea," he said.

Beaver, who has fished in the Slave River for close to 50 years, said he will be interested in seeing the findings of the research.

Fish samples were caught in Fort Resolution on June 21 and 22, Fort Smith on June 25 and 26, and the researchers then moved on to the Alberta communities of Fort Chipewyan, Fort McKay and Fort McMurray for collections this month.

The University of Saskatchewan research is funded for one year with $280,000 from the Pew Charitable Trust in the United States.

Tim Heron, a representative of the Northwest Territory Metis Nation, who is on the aboriginal steering committee of the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy, said there was good community involvement in the research.

"It was trying to help out and get some fish for the scientists so they had enough samples to do what they wanted to do," Heron said.

Jones said the public's involvement was important both to supply fish and share concerns with the researchers.

"They were very valuable for us learning the species we need to be looking at and just trying to get some long-term trends," he said.

Jones said the researchers have baseline information from studies in the 1970s and mid-1990s with which to compare their findings.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.