Community-based research: Diminishing the impacts of shipping traffic in Canada’s Arctic  

 Since 1990, shipping traffic in the Canadian Arctic has almost tripled. These ships don’t just disrupt marine species — they affect the local Inuit communities that hunt them.

The Arctic Corridors Research Project started in 2015 as ​a ​way to reduce the effects that increased shipping is having on traditional hunting and fishing activities in the region.

During the project, which is ongoing, researchers collaborated with local residents across the north to identify significant marine areas in hopes of developing low-impact shipping corridors. 

Natasha Simonee is a resident of Pond Inlet, Nunavut and was one of the community researchers during the first stage of the project. WWF’s Global Arctic Programme spoke to her about why she got involved and the changes she hopes to see when it comes to shipping in the region.  

How would you describe the Arctic Corridors Research Project? 

The Arctic Corridors project started off as a few people getting together with ideas that coincided with each other. And then one thing led to another, and it became this really big, cool project. I feel that it was necessary, eye-opening and innovative. I also feel the team did a really good job making sure it spanned the north and including perspectives from different communities. 

Why was a project like this needed?  

In my community, we see a significant number of ships in a season—and the number is definitely increasing. But it wasn’t always like this. To give you some context, as a kid, when a cruise ship came in, it was really exciting. Now, when we see a cruise ship, it’s almost as if we sigh and say, “Another ship. I wonder how long they’re here for this time?”  

Not that we don’t want them. And not that it isn’t a good opportunity, economically. But we’ve gone from a handful of ships to approximately 30 ships each season, including cargo, cruise and private pleasure craft. And that doesn’t include the more than 70 ships that carry iron ore. We have the mining company shipping iron ore through our waters during the entire open-water season. Then we have the tankers that come in with our fuel supply for the year.  

How has this increased shipping affected your community?

From my perspective, it’s stressful. There’s a lot of interruption to our activities. Pond Inlet is an Inuit community that hunts for food. People here are travelling to their cabins and trying to continue their way of life while navigating and sharing the same waters as these really big ships.

We have people driving 14- to 24-foot boats and they’re having to navigate through the waves created by these ships—and avoid intersecting paths while hunting. 

For animals, there are a lot of interruptions. As a matter of fact, this year has been an extreme low for narwhal sightings during the ice break-up and their migration. It’s usually an exciting time in our community, with boats everywhere and everybody hunting and working together. But this year, we didn’t get to share in that excitement because it was almost as if the narwhal didn’t pass by our community, there were so few. But there’s so much going on in the bigger picture that we can’t pinpoint the cause.  

How has this project helped to improve things? 

A project like Arctic Corridors is needed to bring awareness to the daily realities of northern communities and also to the realities of increased shipping in the Arctic and how these two realities are struggling somewhat to co-exist. There is no policing of ship traffic in the Arctic. Ships are trusted to follow suggested travel routes and recommendations. Along their paths are historic campsites, many of which are significant to communities and Inuit

In one part of the project, we met with knowledge holders in the community, including Elders and hunters. And we talked about areas that are significant, such as campgrounds, historic sites or high-traffic areas.

They got to highlight what they felt were significant areas, and based on that, they shared any recommendations, whether about ship travelling speeds, routes or “no go” zones. We compiled those recommendations with the hope that shipping companies would consider them. But we just have to hope that people travelling in Arctic waters will review the recommendations. 

What would you like to see happen now? 

I don’t know. I’ve thought about it a lot. There are days when I think that in a perfect world, there would be no ships. But then no ships would mean I don’t get my summer supply of goods and fuel, because that is also part of the shipping activity—we have to be careful that we’re not eliminating necessary services.

It’s difficult, because we need to find the middle ground where we can have both shipping and our traditional way of life.  Then there are days I think about how we can ensure that shipping activities and the Inuit way of life co-exist without the negative impacts. So far, I don’t think we have found a way to balance the two in our daily lives.  

One thing we see is that the mining company, Baffinland, follows a very strict speed limit. But they’re the only ones that are regulated. We can’t really regulate everyone else. What I’m trying to say is that any shipping company that’s going up north should consider the recommendations that were compiled through this project. If they did, we would have effective “no go” zones and speed limits in specific areas. But we can’t make the law.

This article originally appeared in The Circle: Navigating a Changing Arctic