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A Department of Fisheries and Oceans researcher tags a fish alongside the Sylvia Grinnell River near Iqaluit. Almost 900 Arctic char were tagged over the past three years for a new study that hopes to shed light on stock populations, due to be released in March. - photo courtesy of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans

IQALUIT
After nearly three years fishing for information on the Sylvia Grinnell-area Arctic char, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has caught, and will release, its results.

Tags are trickling in after DFO tagged 895 fish around the metal dump area of the Sylvia Grinnell River between the Iqaluit golf course and falls area.

So far, 80 tags have been returned for a reward of $10 each to those who bring them in. About $8,000 worth of fish tags are still floating around in large pools near Sylvia Grinnell.

"The big objective for this study was to do a mark-and-recapture population estimate," said research management DFO fishery biologist Chris Lewis.

To get a population estimate of the Sylvia Grinnell area, Lewis said the researchers used small mesh gill nets a couple of hours before high tide in the summer, took fish out every 10 minutes to collect weights, lengths and age, then tagged them and took fin clips to provide insight into what shape the stock is in at this point. The collected tissue samples were frozen for future process but haven't been analyzed for toxicology.

Results from the study are currently being analyzed with research counterparts in Winnipeg, and will be officially released in mid-March.

"It's been pretty well studied," said Lewis. "There's a lot of biological research over the years."

However, in Iqaluit, concern has grown recently over a lot of waste on the river after many fish were found caught and left rotting on the riverside.

"Initially, it's one of the big reasons that spurred this recent study," said Lewis, adding a lot of research is being done across the territory on Arctic char, particularly in Cumberland Sound.

The last study in the Sylvia Grinnell region was in 2004.

Methusalah Kunuk, with the Iqaluit Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association, has fished in the Sylvia Grinnell area and caught two of the DFO study's tagged fish. He said he has not fished at the falls area of the park, where there has been recorded wastage in past years.

"From the study itself, I don't have any concerns. I don't know how effective it was," he said. "My only concern is that the fish we caught have scars from being hooked in the body, probably at the falls."

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