Increased Shipping Activity and Marine Mammals in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait: Developing a Low-Impact Shipping Corridor.

As the Canadian Arctic warms at a rate far surpassing the global average, the changing sea ice regime invites increased development and shipping activity. This increased activity introduces greater anthropogenic pressures on cetaceans, resulting in increased risk of strikes, behavioural disturbances, and other negative impacts. The Canadian waters of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait are experiencing this increased vessel traffic as part of the Northwest Passage. Managing these worsening impacts is of the utmost importance to preserve the sensitive ecosystem of the Canadian Arctic. This thesis explores how increasing vessel traffic trends are overlapping with cetacean distributions and assesses the placement of a low-impact shipping corridor aiming to reduce this overlap. The low-impact corridor is compared to an existing shipping corridor that did not account for ecological inputs. The outcomes of this work and the identified low-impact corridor can be used to inform sustainable development in the Canadian Arctic.

Author dc:creator

• Hughes, Owen, Rhys

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Halliday, William, D

• School of environment and sustainability

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25316/ir-20315

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10613/28744