15/18: LME FACTSHEET SERIES CANADIAN HIGH ARCTIC-NORTH GREENLAND LME tic LMEs Arc CANADIAN HIGH ARCTIC-NORTH GREENLAND LME MAP 18 of Central Map Arctic Ocean LME North Pole Ellesmere Island Iceland Greenland 15 "1 ARCTIC LMEs Large ! Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) are defined as regions of work of the ArcNc Council in developing and promoNng the ocean space of 200,000 km² or greater, that encompass Ecosystem Approach to management of the ArcNc marine coastal areas from river basins and estuaries to the outer environment. margins of a conNnental shelf or the seaward extent of a predominant coastal current. LMEs are defined by ecological Joint EA Expert group criteria, including bathymetry, hydrography, producNvity, and PAME established an Ecosystem Approach to Management tropically linked populaNons. PAME developed a map expert group in 2011 with the parNcipaNon of other ArcNc delineaNng 17 ArcNc Large Marine Ecosystems (ArcNc LME's) Council working groups (AMAP, CAFF and SDWG). This joint in the marine waters of the ArcNc and adjacent seas in 2006. Ecosystem Approach Expert Group (EA-EG) has developed a In a consultaNve process including agencies of ArcNc Council framework for EA implementaNon where the first step is member states and other ArcNc Council working groups, the idenNficaNon of the ecosystem to be managed. IdenNfying ArcNc LME map was revised in 2012 to include 18 ArcNc the ArcNc LMEs represents this first step. LMEs. This is the current map of ArcNc LMEs used in the This factsheet is one of 18 in a series of the ArcCc LMEs. OVERVIEW: CANADIAN HIGH ARCTIC-NORTH GREENLAND LME The Canadian High Arcc-North Greenland LME (CAA) consists of the northernmost and high arcc part of Canada along with the adjacent part of North Greenland. The CAA is not a very clearly defined and coherent ecosystem but consists rather of three more Ellesmere or less separate parts, corresponding to three of Island Canada’s Marine Biogeographic Regions: Western Sverdrup BasinQueen Elizabeth Arcc, Eastern Arcc, and Arcc Archipelago. The Islands CAA was established as a new LME in the revised M’Clure Strait 2013 LME Report when the boundaries to the Canadian Arc/c Archipelago changed to reflect Canada’s Marine Biogeographic Regions. Parry Channel Lancaster Sound The CAA is a large shelf region with more than 30.000 islands and passages as straits, sounds and channels between them. The sea area of the archipelago is about 1 million km2, with the land area cons/tu/ng about the same. This area is strongly influenced by heavy mul/-year pack ice that is transported into the ‘Sverdrup Basin’ Map: Canadian Arcc Archipelago LME, before the revised The Canadian High from the Arcc Ocean through the openings between Arcc-North Greenland LME (CAA) was established in 2013. Source: AMSAIIC Report the northern Queen Elisabeth Islands (east of Ellesmere Island). The main east-west connecon The average ice thickness in the Sverdrup Basin area through the archipelago is Parry Channel, a series of has been found to be 3.4 m in late winter, reflecng a straits and sounds from M’Clure Strait in the west high propor/on of mul/year ice (80-90 % in the through Viscount Melville Sound and Barrow Strait to northern por/on). The outer coast of the archipelago Lancaster Sound in the east. faces the heaviest ice condi/ons of the whole Arcc Ocean with an average dra_ of 4-7 m. Modes of thick Ice condi/ons vary considerably within the LME and ice (6-9 m) exist in the Sverdrup Basin with ice on inter- and intra-annual /me scales, with the thickness in pressure keels of up to 25 m or more heaviest ice condi/ons, featuring the predominance (maximum observed keel dra_ 37 m). of mul/-year ice, most prominent in more northern areas such as the Sverdrup Basin. Formidable The CAA LME is a transit zone for nutrient-rich Pacific concentra/ons of deformed ice with significant mul/- waters. The Pacific water from the Arcc Ocean is year ice content are also common in more central richer in all nutrients compared to Atlan/c water but and southern passages such as Viscount Melville is enriched especially in silicate and to some extent Sound, M’Clure Strait, and M’Clintock Channel. also phosphate. It has therefore a poten/al to Summer clearing usually occurs in the south-western support higher produc/on (both new and and eastern por/ons of the archipelago. "2 regenerated) and in par/cular of diatoms due to its higher nutrient content. ! MARINE MAMMALS Eight species of marine mammals occur regularly as Beluga whale has a northern circumpolar year-round inhabitants of, or summer visitors to, the distribuNon, ranging south into the subarcNc. It exists CAA. The Lancaster Sound area with adjacent inlets with around 25 recognized stocks; most of them are consNtutes the major summer grounds for large small and with restricted distribuNons, but a few are migratory stocks of bowhead or Greenland whale, large and migratory to summering areas in the High beluga whale, and narwhal. Ringed seal and bearded ArcNc Belugas from two large migratory stocks occur seal are year-round residents distributed widely over in the CAA. Belugas typically do not occur in the the archipelago. AtlanNc walrus of the Baffin Bay central CAA, probably because belugas (and some (High ArcNc) stock winter in northern Baffin Bay and other marine mammals) cannot penetrate the migrate to summer feeding areas in Lancaster Sound, extensive areas of permanent pack ice that occur Barrow Strait, Jones Sound and adjacent passages to year-round in many of the central arcNc channels. the Sverdrup Basin to the North. Some walrus may Thus belugas are not found in the Sverdrup Basin also spend the winter in polynyas north of Barrow region in north or in the M’Clintock Channel east of Strait and Jones Sound. Harp seal of the large Victoria Island. Events characterized as ‘feeding Northwest AtlanNc stock migrate north in Baffin Bay frenzies’ have been observed where belugas fed on and into Lancaster Sound as part of the summer schools of polar cod accompanied by large numbers feeding areas. Polar bear occurs over the whole of northern fulmars and black-legged kiwakes and archipelago with bears from 5 recognized also by other mammals such as narwhals, harp seals, subpopulaons in specific geographic areas and ringed seals. (Norwegian Bay, Lancaster Sound, M’Clintock Channel, Gulf of Boothia, and Kane Basin Narwhal inhabits deep marine waters of the eastern subpopulaons). Addional to the 8 species CAA. TradiNonally, it does not occur in the western menNoned above, killer whale may be a more or less Canadian ArcNc. These narwhals belong to the Baffin regular visitor to the Lancaster Sound region in the Bay populaNon and use areas of the CAA as their summer period. Hooded seal can also occasionally summering grounds. The total numbers of narwhals occur in Lancaster Sound during the late summer of the Baffin Bay populaNon is esNmated to be season. (probably) more than 70.000 animals. Bowhead whale (or Greenland whale) is a large, Killer whale is known to occur in the Lancaster Sound slow-moving arcNc baleen whale that is well adapted region in the open water summer season. Killer for living in ice-covered waters. All stocks of this whales may occur in waters with sea ice but species were severely reduced in numbers by apparently avoid areas with heavy ice. Groups of intensive commercial whaling during the 1800s and killer whales have been observed (or inferred) to early 1900s. There are virtually no specific studies of aeack and eat narwhals in Eclipse Sound and the feeding of bowheads in the CAA, but it is Admiralty Inlet. The groups of killer whales in these assumed that calanoid copepods are the main prey cases have consisted of 10-15 animals. Interviews sought by the bowheads. The Eastern Canada-West with Inuit hunters and elders have provided Greenland bowhead stock was unNl quite recently addiNonal informaNon on cases of killer whales considered to number in the low hundreds for each aeacking and killing narwhals and also bowheads and of the two stock components in Baffin Bay and belugas in the Lancaster Sound region. There are also Hudson Bay. However, the situaNon has turned out to reports of killer whales taking seals, principally ringed be much more posiNve for this bowhead stock. seals but also bearded and harp seals, including Large-scale aerial surveys in the eastern Arcc observaNons by Inuits of killer whales hunNng seals Canada in 2002-2004 resulted in best esNmates on ice floes. Narwhals are known to seek shallow ranging from 5,000 to 14,000 individuals. The waters where they remain quiet in order not to be ScienNfic Commieee of the IWC considered several detected and aeacked by killer whales. This variants of methods and reanalysis of the survey data behaviour is well-known among Inuits, who has a and arrived at an esNmate of 6,340 animals to be special name for it (‘aarlirijuk’, meaning ‘fear of killer used as the basis for IWC management advice. whales’) and exploit such situaNons to harvest narwhals. "3 Walrus! is widespread in the eastern Canadian that is most abundant in areas where it can reach ArcNc, but largely absent in Canadian waters west of the boeom to feed, usually in waters <200 m deep. there. The AtlanNc subspecies, the only populaNon Its preferred habitat is areas with thin, broken or that occurs regularly in the Canadian ArcNc, is widely roeen ice, or the floe edge, and it also prefers less distributed in the eastern part of the CAA LME, from stable ice during break-up and tends to avoid areas approximately Barrow Strait, Bathurst Island, and heavily used by walruses.