Darcy G McNicholl

Fisheries and Oceans Canada | DFO · Division of Science

The Hudson Bay Complex (HBC) is rapidly changing, which is impacting ecosystems and Northern Indigenous communities. To address a knowledge gap in understanding coastal ecosystem, a community-led coastal assessment was completed in four HBC communities to assess the biodiversity of fishes, invertebrates, and their habitats in a program called “Arct...

Rapid climate change occurring in the Arctic may affect the diet of ecologically and culturally important northern fish species. Here, a systematic literature review was completed for eight fish species found across the North American Arctic, with a focus on Inuit Nunangat, to identify major prey items, summarize feeding strategies, and highlight d...

Establishing a baseline of Arctic marine biodiversity is necessary for monitoring impacts of climate change in the vulnerable Canadian Arctic and protecting sensitive regions that are of significant importance to Inuit culture and socioeconomics. Under the goals of improving documentation of Arctic marine communities and creating a tool for assessi...

The distributional extent of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the North American Arctic is unresolved. While adult Pacific salmon have a recurring presence across the Alaskan North Slope and into the Canadian Arctic, it is uncertain if these fish are part of established Arctic populations, vagrants from outside sources reproducing unsuccessful...

Arctic marine ecosystems are changing, one aspect of which appears to be distributional expansions of sub-arctic species. For Arctic marine systems, there is limited occurrence information for many species, especially those found in restricted habitats (e.g., ice-covered, far north, or deep-water). Increasing observations through on-going Fisheries...

In conclusion, over the past 20 years, and particularly since 2011, almost all Pacific salmon species found in North America, with the exception of coho salmon, have increased in occurrence and geographic distribution in the Canadian Arctic. These species are also experiencing more extreme variations in harvests, with an increased frequency of exc...

Arctic and sub-Arctic ecosystems are rapidly changing, but morphological diversity can increase a species’ resilience to these environmental fluctuations. Capelin Mallotus villosus is a cold-water forage fish distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, but is not thoroughly studied outside the Atlantic Ocean, which impedes our ability to infer...

While salmon have been harvested for generations in some areas of the Canadian Arctic, salmon harvests are generally increasing across northern Canada. More species of salmon are being harvested in more places and in higher abundances in recent years. Accordingly, more northerners are eating more salmon. People new to salmon as food are now learnin...

Overview and synthesis of the present state of the Arctic Seas of Canada

Specific case studies in support of the main technical report 3344

A survey of coastal fishes was conducted in western Coronation Gulf in the fall of 2017 in order to assess community composition of nearshore fishes and identify their habitat associations. Fishes were collected at coastal sites in close proximity to the Rae (67°55' N and 115°20' W), and Coppermine (67°49' N and 115°05' W) rivers, near the communit...

The purposes of this guide are to assist in: 1. Differentiating among Pacific salmon, Atlantic Salmon, and char; 2. Identifying among the different kinds of Pacific salmon; 3. Identifying among the different kinds of char; 4. Identifying among the different kinds of juvenile Pacific salmon.

Here the objective is to summarize changes in salmon abundance, distribution and species composition in subsistence harvests in Canadian Arctic since previous reviews (Stephenson 2006; Nielson et al. 2013; Dunmall et al. 2013). This information also contributes to the establishment of community-based monitoring as an effective method to detect rare...

Life history trait variation within a species promotes regional-specific strategies that optimize fitness in a particular environment. Capelin (Mallotus villosus) is an important forage fish species with a circumpolar, temperate distribution, but has increased in relative abundance in Arctic regions recently. To examine for region-specific life his...

Climate change is expected to drive shifts in abundance and distribution of marine forage fishes and possibly result in dietary overlap among sub-Arctic and Arctic species. Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C, δ15N) were used as a proxy of dietary niche breadth and overlap between co-occurring, immature capelin (Mallotus villosus) and pola...

The Eastern Beaufort Sea (EBS) beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) population are an important traditional food for the Inuit of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Northwest Territories (NT) Canada. In 2014, over 30 beluga whales were harvested at Ulukhaktok, NT, the first occurrence of a large harvest in the area on record. Unlike observations from the...

Polar cod (Boreogadus saida) is one of the most studied Arctic marine fishes given its circumpolar distribution and centralised role in the Arctic marine food web. In contrast, relatively little is known about two other Arctic Gadidae: saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) and Greenland cod (Gadus ogac). Climate change is expected to have an effect on se...

Capelin are an important fish species in marine habitats because they serve as a prey source for marine mammals, predatory fish, and sea birds in sub-Arctic waters and in parts of the Arctic. In the Beaufort Sea, Capelin are less abundant than in southern waters and have been observed at a limited number of locations, primarily outside of the Macke...

Sampling of coastal fishes was conducted in Darnley Bay in the summer of 2012, and in 2014 to 2016 in order to establish baseline information on the community composition of nearshore fishes and identify their habitat associations within the Anguniaqvia Niqiqyuam Marine Protected Area. Surveys were conducted at three remote field locations (Bennett...

The coastal region of the Beaufort Sea supports both anadromous and marine fish species. However, there is limited knowledge of habitat use and the extent of dietary overlap where these fishes co-occur in Arctic embayments. Darnley Bay, a recently established marine protected area is an ecologically important region for marine and anadromous fishes...

Reduction in sea ice due to climate change is expected to have a negative impact on habitat availability for Arctic marine fishes and induce range expansion of species from southern environments. Such an effect will likely be observed in the abundance of polar cod, Bore- ogadus saida (Lepechin, 1774), as well as interspecific interactions of this i...

Forage fish species lie at the core of marine food webs, as they prey on lower trophic levels (zooplankton) and in turn are eaten by top predators 1 . By converting energy from lower trophic levels into food for higher trophic levels, energy flow through marine food webs is mediated through forage fish 1 . In the Canadian Arctic, Arctic cod (Boreog...

Reduction of sea ice combined with encroachment of habitats as Arctic marine conditions ameliorate due to climate change, is expected to affect the abundance of Arctic Cod Boreogadus saida (Lepechin, 1774) and perhaps also the relationships of these intermediate-level trophic taxa, particularly in more southerly fringing seas in the Arctic. Arctic...