Fishnet - Healthy Water, Healthy Fish, Healthy People

Climate change has significant implications for water and food security, especially in Canada’s north where the climate is warming at three to five times the global rate. Already there has been a major impact on northern communities that harvest their own food through hunting, gathering, and fishing activities. In the project, Healthy Water, Healthy Fish, Healthy People (otherwise known as FIShNET), researchers are examining food security issues in the north by focusing on one of the most critical questions from Indigenous people about whether local fish are safe to eat. 

FIShNET aimed to empower communities by making them aware of any species of fish that are frequently above safe thresholds and whether the fish they are harvesting may have an impact on their health – negative or positive. It also aims to develop effective public health communication strategies that promote traditional food reliance in ways that maximize nutrient status while limiting contaminant exposure in the Mushkegowuk Region of northern Ontario.  This not only requires understanding of the long-term sustainability of wild-harvested fish as a healthy food resource but also the connections between the environment, food, human behavior, and culture. 

While some aspects of FIShNET were not able to be completed because of the pandemic, our team was able to measure levels of arsenic and mercury levels in 50 samples of fish and Mollusca collected from the Albany River in the Mushkegowuk region in northern Ontario. Overall, the levels of arsenic and mercury were low in the fish and mussel samples. FIShNET results were shared in the form of a one-pager and plain language posters with partners in Fort Albany First Nation and Mushkegowuk Council. 

In a collaboration with the Northern Water Futures project, the FIShNET team also worked to characterize levels of several priority biomarkers, including mercury, cadmium, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in several communities located in the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories. This study was done using hair, blood, and urine samples to measure numerous contaminants, food intake surveys, a Health Messages Survey, and key-informant interviews. The combination of approaches enabled researchers to understand human biomarker data alongside levels of awareness, community perceptions, and preferences for communication strategies around consumption notices and nutrition messages. For instance, results show a correlation between low levels of mercury and responsiveness to communication messages (e.g., a recommendation to change the location of harvests). While this work was done in the Northwest Territories, some of the results could be helpful to communities across Canada’s north. 

An effective long-term solution to improving food security in the north isn’t telling people what they can or cannot eat; rather, it involves working to lower toxic emission levels in the first place.