Nunavut fisheries are rapidly developing, and managers in the region have limited biological information to guide their decisions. To address this, researchers at the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) conducted novel studies on the population structure, movement ecology and depth preferences of commercially important Greenland halibut, as well as two common commercial bycatch species—Greenland shark and Arctic skate—in the Baffin Island coastal region.

In Cumberland Sound, a halibut fishery had been established, and divided into northern and southern sectors by an arbitrary management boundary and regulated as if the two sectors had separate fish populations. However, OTN’s telemetry data revealed that the fish were a single population that regularly crossed the boundary and that, overall, the Sound’s halibut population was dwindling. 

In 2014, OTN researchers, working with Indigenous communities, successfully influenced the relocation of the management boundary to the entrance of the Cumberland Sound, which has helped guide more sustainable and effective management of the resource and ensured fair access to the fishery by local Inuit. 

Deepwater discoveries

As in other Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Arctic projects (OTN project 4.10), marine mammals were tracked by listening for their calls. The data revealed that narwhal and bowhead whales were only present before full ice cover developed in fall, while seals and walruses remained after ice formation. 

This project provided multiple discoveries about the secret lives of deepwater Arctic species and involved significant collaboration with rights holders, stakeholders and the government of Nunavut.