New tool makes travel safe
SmartIce initiative used to measure thickness of sea ice at Pond Inlet
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, May 30, 2016
MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET
A new project in Pond Inlet promises to combine scientific technology and traditional knowledge to create information that's useful to the community.
Andrew Arreak rides his snowmobile towing the Smart Qamutik, which captures information about the sea ice, around Pond Inlet. He's working with the Ikaarvik Project to collect information on ice patterns in the community. - photo courtesy of Andrew Arreak |
The Ikaarvik Project, which won an Arctic Inspiration prize in 2013, has started the SmartIce initiative, which tracks and measures ice thickness.
From start to finish, the goal of the project is to provide relevant information to the people of Pond Inlet first and foremost.
Youth in Pond Inlet identified sea ice trends as a key need for research, so Ikaarvik embarked on the SmartIce program to help community members precisely measure what's going on.
"If you're thinking about it as a researcher, you're thinking climate change, polar bears, freshwater going into the ocean, you're thinking about a whole bunch of things as a scientist but for the community, there are different levels of knowledge and understanding about sea ice," said Shelly Elverum, Pond Inlet resident and northern co-ordinator of Ikaarvik.
"It's how do you get your food, how do you travel between communities, how do you teach skills to young people, how do you learn how to hunt. There's so much wrapped up in sea ice from the community perspective, but there's also so much interest in sea ice for researchers."
Ikaarvik has also teamed up with Memorial University of Newfoundland to analyze the data.
Andrew Arreak, SmartIce community researcher, is tasked with collecting the data with the Smart Qamutik, which measures ice thickness as he tows it behind his snowmobile.
He's in constant communication with hunters and trappers, the hamlet, Parks Canada, the Canadian Rangers and local search and rescue, trying to determine what areas need mapping and how he can help the community better understand the sea ice around Pond Inlet.
"I know that it's going to help a lot of local people here, especially the hunters and the search team," said Arreak.
"Due to climate change, the seasons are starting to be earlier than usual and some areas of the ice are getting unpredictable. I want safe travel for Inuit people."
Elverum said some elders and hunters in the community have expressed concern recently about thin ice at the floe edge. With the Smart Qamutik, Arreak can immediately go out and find out the exact status of the area, and he can also map how it changes during the seasons.
Elverum thinks this technology might be especially useful comparing the before and after should Baffinland Iron Mines Ltd. expand its shipping season from the Mary River project.
The technology benefits both the local community and southern researchers, she said.
"You're matching up technology with traditional knowledge," said Elverum. "That's the beautiful thing about this project. It's not just saying, 'We've got these cool scientific tools and toys we can use,' but it's partnering it with traditional knowledge so you create something that builds on the best of both. You can take the traditional knowledge and say we know traditionally this area has been thin, but (Arreak) can now take the qamutik and run it over that area and go, 'Yeah, that's exactly what's going on.'"
Beyond the Smart Qamutik, there are also sensors placed in the ice beaming information up to satellites, as well as a buoy.
Elverum stressed the importance of getting buy-in from the community before embarking on any project.
"It's really special because it's giving the power of research into the hands of the community," she said. "Instead of somebody else coming in and providing data to you, you're part of the whole process of understanding what's going on."
At a recent community meeting on the project, Arreak said he heard positive feedback.
"The majority of them asked me how long the program would be going, and I told them I had two more years but they wished it could continue on as long as it could," he said.
