The Government of Canada has affirmed Greenland’s right to take part in the environmental assessment of an iron ore mine expansion project that could see a railroad built on Baffin Island and ship traffic increase in the Canadian Arctic and beyond.

Greenland’s concerns hinge on how the expansion of the Mary River Mine could impact wildlife — narwhals, in particular — a concern also raised by subsistence hunters and community members in Nunavut as Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. seeks to increase production. 

Baffinland opened the Mary River Mine on north Baffin Island in 2014 — the northernmost mine in Canada. The company is now looking to double its capacity under a second phase of development, which is under review by the Nunavut Impact Review Board. 

Mary River Mine, on Baffin Island, Nunavut. Map: Google Maps

That assessment process has seen various technical meetings and public hearings throughout 2019, which included Inuit organizations, hunters and trappers organizations, communities,  federal and territorial government departments and environmental groups.

The Kingdom of Denmark also requested a say in the process, on behalf of its autonomous territory of Greenland, in a letter submitted to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada in February. The foreign government argued its rights to consult on the project under a United Nations treaty to which both Canada and Denmark are signatories.

In a letter posted to the review board’s registry on June 25, the agency confirmed the Espoo Convention — signed in 1991, laying out consultation obligations for development projects that pose transboundary impacts — applies to Baffinland’s proposed expansion project.

In the letter, Tara Frezza, director of intergovernmental affairs at the agency, calls on the review board to alert the Government of Denmark to “the likely significant adverse transboundary impacts, including impacts on marine mammals, accidents and malfunctions, invasive species and any mitigation measures and alternatives being considered.” 

She added that Denmark must be informed of any possible transboundary impacts of the expansion project and be consulted on their significance. 

Karen Costello, the executive director of the review board, told The Narwhal all information from interested parties will be considered in the review process — and confirmed Greenland is an interested party. 

“We will look forward to whatever their concerns are,” she said.

Baffinland Iron Mines’ expansion plans for Mary River

Baffinland is currently permitted to ship six million tonnes of iron ore from its port on Milne Inlet, just west of the community of Pond Inlet, located on Eclipse Sound. Baffinland wants to ratchet production up to 12 million tonnes of iron ore per year, and to construct a 110-kilometre railway to move that ore from mine to port (it currently uses a tote road for that purpose).

Under phase two, Baffinland is proposing 176 voyages for ore carriers, between July and November each year. Baffinland has also requested that its production be capped by the maximum number of ship voyages, as well as a limit on train trips, rather than the actual 12-million-tonne figure, to allow for flexibility. 

As reported by The Narwhal in October, the company appears to be telling investors a different story than regulators, claiming to the former it will increase capacity to 18 million tonnes.

A Baffinland spokesperson declined to comment. 

What are Greenland’s concerns about the Mary River Mine? 

Ore-laden ships travel from Mary River’s Milne Inlet port through Eclipse Sound to Baffin Bay, along the west coast of Greenland, to reach Europe where the ore is transported to market. 

Increased traffic on the route raises concerns for Greenland because ships will travel through sensitive marine mammal habitat, including that of narwhal. 

“Overall, the transportation of the iron ore in the Mary River project must be considered one of the greatest threats to marine mammals in the Arctic,” says a memo from Greenland’s Directorate for the Environment and Nature, included in Denmark’s February letter to Canada, adding that there are risks of oil spills and collisions with whales.

Mads Peter Heide Jørgensen and Fernando Ugarte, the memo’s authors, state that Eclipse Sound, which Milne Inlet opens into, is home to 10 per cent of the world’s population of narwhal, which are “incredibly noise-sensitive.” 

“Most of their food intake takes place during winter in the dense but moving ice pack at depths of between 1,000 and 2,000 metres,” the memo says. “These are areas that are known to be very quiet, and precisely the silence is something that the narwhals rely on when hunting fish at great depths.” 

If Baffinland’s proposed plan goes ahead, noise created by ships could permanently prevent  narwhal from feeding in the area, the memo says.

Narwhal. Photo: Baffinland

Narwhals are almost entirely dependent on auditory cues for communication, navigation and accessing food. As a result, they’ve been identified as the Arctic marine mammal most threatened by Arctic shipping.

“We’re talking about an animal that has lived in relative isolation from the effects of industrial development and they’re now going to be exposed to potentially regular shipping,” Brandon Laforest, a senior specialist in Arctic species and ecosystems for WWF-Canada, told The Narwhal last year. 

For a whole variety of reasons, narwhals have been identified as the most susceptible Arctic marine mammal to climate change.

“They have a very limited range, they have a very low genetic diversity and very specific food habits that are passed down through generations. And they also rely on sea ice,” Laforest said.

Greenland’s memo also noted that ice-breaking and ship traffic could affect the habitat of seals, walruses and whales, noting that bowhead whales are just returning to the area after virtually disappearing for 100 years.

Where is the process at now?

The November public hearing about the expansion project ground to a halt two days early — and with only a fraction of the agenda covered — after Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the land claims representative for Nunavut Inuit, motioned to adjourn, seeing too many unanswered questions. Meetings were rescheduled for March, and then put on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic limiting both travel and public gatherings.

Costello said information on the process moving forward, such as timelines, will be sent to all parties involved later this month. 

This could signal a possible reboot of the beleaguered assessment process for Mary River phase two — one that has now gained international attention and participation.

Once the process is complete, the review board will issue a recommendation to the federal government on whether or not to allow the expansion project to go forward.

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Seismic airguns are being fired underwater off the east coast of Greenland to find new oil reserves in the Arctic Ocean. But this activity “could seriously injure” whales and other marine life, warns a new report conducted by Marine Conservation Research and commissioned by Greenpeace Nordic.

The oil industry is increasingly looking towards the region, as oil and gas reserves become more accessible as climate change causes large areas of Arctic sea ice to melt.

Global oil companies including BP, Chevron and Shell all own drilling rights in the Greenland Sea and are the likely customers for the data gathered by the Norwegian geophysical company conducting the seismic testing, TGS-Nopec.

Wildlife Impacts

However, this seismic operation is taking place adjacent to ‘closed areas’ and overlaps with ‘areas of concern’ that have been appointed by the Greenlandic authorities, for the protection of narwhals, walruses and a critically endangered population of bowhead whales.

According to Greenpeace, the airguns emit 259-decibel blasts towards the seabed in order to find possible oil reservoirs. Above water, this sound intensity would be perceived by humans as approximately eight times louder than a jet engine taking off.

As the report details, seismic testing can damage marine mammals’ hearing and their ability to communicate as well as disrupting behaviour, feeding and migration patterns. This is because these mammals, and whales in particular, rely on sound to navigate, communicate and search for food.

There are also increasing indications that seismic testing can cause reproductive failure and increase the risk of strandings and ice entrapments.

Seismic Activity

Seismic testing has been conducted every summer in Greenland since 2011. And in April, TGS announced it had also begun doing seismic testing of the Barents Sea. As DeSmog UK has reported, Norway is leading the charge in Europe for Arctic oil development as production at its first offshore oilfield is set to begin “in a few weeks”.

The report's author, Dr Oliver Boisseau, a senior research scientist at Marine Conservation Research, said: “It is alarming to consider the vast amount of seismic activity being planned and conducted in the High Arctic, given the fragile nature of the ecosystem and the potential for disturbance and harm to whales.

“It seems justified to urge for extreme caution given both the lack of data and the limited understanding of the short and long term impact of seismic noise on sensitive Arctic species, especially the narwhal.”

Photo: Glenn Williams via Wikimedia Commons

As Boisseau highlights, the narwhal is particularly vulnerable to seismic testing. While some whales react to seismic sounds tens of kilometres away by trying to avoid them, narwhals are unique in their tendency to "freeze and sink" in response to a threat.

The report explains: “This means narwhals are more susceptible to damage from airgun blasts as they are not inclined to avoid regions impacted by noise.”

Narwhals are also more susceptible to becoming trapped in the ice in response to blasts from seismic vessels. Between 2008 and 2010 three entrapments of narwhals were reported coinciding with seismic activities in Greenland during the summer period. The narwhals delayed their autumn migration from Baffin Bay, leading to them travelling while winter sea ice started forming, causing thousands of narwhals to become entrapped in the ice and die.

This was the first time narwhal entrapments had ever been reported in this area.

Research Gap

However, the Marine Conservation Research report stresses that there is a “massive research gap” in this field. To date, no strandings of Arctic whale species have been reported, “which could mean they have not occurred or that they have not been reported due to the remoteness and extremely thin population density,” the report explains.

“Based on available data, the authors ‘urge for extreme caution’ amongst decision makers before allowing seismic activity in the Arctic,” the report argues. “From the research at hand, it is clear that noise from seismic activity impacts whales.”

Arctic campaigner Sune Scheller, on-board Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise headed to Greenland, said: “Seismic blasting in icy waters is just one of the horrific practices the oil industry is doing in the Arctic, firing airguns into this important and beautiful ocean.

“Shell and other oil companies are hoping the world won’t know that seismic blasting exists, even less notice the danger it poses to endangered whales and other marine life, but we’re here to expose this madness and keep eyes and ears on a harmful operation.”

@kylamandel

Photo: Greenland Travel via Flickr

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