Hudson Bay potential for oil spill under microscope

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This article was published 15/08/2019 (1715 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Possible responses to an oil spill in Hudson Bay will be studied by University of Manitoba researchers, aided with nearly $6.4 million in federal funding.

Traffic in Hudson Bay has tripled since 1990. Sea ice in northern Canadian waters has been declining seven per cent a year, Environment and Climate Change Canada has found, leading calls for even more shipping vessels to use the nation’s largest inland sea.

“With this increasing activity, comes a greater risk of accidental spills of fuel and other transportation-related contaminants,” U of M Prof. Gary Stern, one of the researchers who received funding, said in a news release.

Stern’s project will help distinguish between natural background and contaminating hydrocarbons in the event of an oil spill by creating a profile of the Kivalliq Region of northwestern Hudson Bay.

Five of seven total projects will be lead by Prof. Feiyue Wang of the U of M’s Centre for Earth Observation Science, who will study possible response techniques both in open water and on ice.

A previous U of M study found nearly a half-million tonnes of grain were shipped annually through the Port of Churchill, which also handles about 10,000 tonnes of freight each year, destined for Nunavut.

But shipping oil through the port has also been discussed, and the studies will address the unique vulnerabilities of the bay should that happen, the U of M said in a release.

Last year, Arctic Gateway Group purchased the Hudson Bay Railway and Port of Churchill and has resumed grain shipments.