THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Fort Smith has heard a summary of three years of fish studies on the Slave River, and the news is fairly encouraging.

University of Saskatchewan professor Dr. Paul Jones checks a fish from the Slave River in Fort Smith in 2011. - NNSL file photo

The update came from Dr. Paul Jones, a University of Saskatchewan professor, who has looked at the river from 2011 to 2013 in two separate studies. The first two years involved both the Slave River and Athabasca River, while a new study covers just the Slave.

Both studies included looking for impacts from Alberta's oil sands development.

"From what I'm seeing with the fish, there doesn't seem to be any real adverse effects," he said, although he added things still need to be watched. "Clearly, one or two deformed fish raise a lot more public concern than the normal fish that people don't really pay much attention to."

Jones was speaking at a May 14 public meeting – attended by 10 community residents – held as part of workshops by the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy on community monitoring of the Slave River. A similar public meeting was held the following night in Fort Resolution.

The current monitoring is a two-year project called Slave Watershed Environmental Effects Program (SWEEP), which is looking for impacts from climate change, pesticides from farming, hydrological changes and industrial pollution.

Jones and his team examined fish for abnormalities, including checking for external lesions and looking at internal organs, and took detailed measurements to determine the health of the fish.

In 2011 and 2012, there were 835 fish from four species sampled from five sites on the Athabasca and Slave rivers from Fort McMurray to Fort Resolution. Lesions and other anomalies – ranging from bumps caused by viral disease to healed wounds – were spotted in 15 to 16 per cent of the fish.

In August of 2013, two species – walleye and whitefish – were studied in just the Fort Smith and Fort Resolution areas, and 111 individual fish were examined.

"We found this lesions-plus-other incidence rate around about 1.8 per cent," said Jones. "So there is a significant difference in that, but it's gone down, it hasn't gone up."

However, he cautioned against reading too much into those numbers, noting there are annual variations in such things.

Plus, he noted, while the incidence rate was much lower for fish only from the Slave River, the 2011-2012 incidences were evenly spread along the Athabasca and Slave.

As for the bumps from the viral disease, he noted it can spike from year to year in a fish population, like the common cold can in humans.

"So I think we are looking fairly good in that portion of the study," he said.

Jones noted that, with data from 2011 to 2013, he can see if things are changing over time for walleye in Fort Smith and Fort Resolution combined.

"There seems to be a slight increase in the condition factor, so the fish are getting fatter, maybe the fish are getting healthier," he said. "And we see a similar situation for whitefish."

While that also could be good news, he said that has to be watched, explaining some chemicals can affect reproduction in fish, and they consequently put all of their energy into growth.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what's going on in this circumstance, but it just shows that we need to be careful about the ways that we interpret some of this data," he said.

Jones also described testing for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the gallbladders of fish.

PAHs are a group of chemicals that can come from various sources – forest fires, vehicle exhausts, grilled food, cigarette smoke and petroleum resources, including extraction processes such as the oil sands development.

"There are essentially very low concentrations, they're almost absent, in fish on the Slave River," he said, noting that's also good news.

The Athabasca can be an early warning system for the Slave, Jones added. "If we start seeing things change in Fort Chip, we know it's not going to be very long before they start happening down here in the Slave."

Jones noted PAHs can disappear in a river from the effects of light and oxidation, but if there's an increase in what's going into the Athabasca, eventually some will trickle down into the Slave River.

The update on the condition of fish in the Slave River was welcomed by Fort Smith resident David Poitras.

"What struck me is our fish are healthy, and I could see the difference between Fort Chip and here," said Poitras. "To me, that really stood out."

However, he believes the federal and Alberta governments are in denial about what might be headed toward the Slave River some day.

Clayton Burke, another Fort Smith resident, said he also felt good about what he heard, although he worries about the future.

"It does not mean much in the context of the expanding tar sands and also the possibility of Site C dam going ahead," he said, referring to a proposed hydroelectric expansion on the Peace River in B.C. and noting that would impact the Slave River.

SWEEP's study of the Slave River involves five scientists from the University of Saskatchewan.

Two others spoke at the public meeting – one on organisms in the sediment, and the other on ice processes.

Along with the University of Saskatchewan, SWEEP involves the Slave River and Delta Partnership, which includes federal and territorial government agencies, a number of universities, First Nations, Metis councils, the Hamlet of Fort Resolution and the Town of Fort Smith.