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Multiple surveys have taken place on Great Slave Lake with the aim of collecting data on fish populations to achieve sustainable management, however, a lack of consistency and lake coverage from these investigations’ limits data useability. Misinterpretations of data collected in early research likely contributed to the collapse of the Lake Trout, Salvelinus namaycush, stocks shortly after the commercial fishery began. The limited abundance indices available for Lake Trout, further complicated by inconsistent management areas and recording methods, prevents the incorporation of all available data into a conventional stock assessment model. Therefore, CMSY++, the most recent version of the data-limited, surplus production model, CMSY, was applied to assess the status of Great Slave Lake Trout populations. The results generated in this assessment predict that Lake Trout stocks in all current commercially fished regions are overfished, with combined Lake Trout and Lake Whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis, quotas above estimated Lake Trout maximum sustainable yields. My findings indicate Lake Trout commercial harvest in recent years has surpassed the estimated maximum sustainable yield for the stock in some management areas. Inferences from modeling catch-time series of varied lengths suggest ~50 years of catch data should be sufficient for reference point estimation for these Lake Trout populations, as longer time series did not decrease uncertainty. The management areas with the most commercial harvest (Areas IW & IE) reveal the greatest uncertainty associated with biomass estimates, suggesting more data is required to better understand the current state of the stocks and any increases to quotas should not occur until this is done. Conclusions of my research support those suggested over 50 years ago; Lake Trout and Lake Whitefish, should be managed through separate commercial quotas to achieve sustainable management for these populations.

The threat posed by invasive non-native species worldwide requires a global approach to identify which introduced species are likely to pose an elevated risk of impact to native species and ecosystems. To inform policy, stakeholders and management decisions on global threats to aquatic ecosystems, 195 assessors representing 120 risk assessment areas across all six inhabited continents screened 819 non-native species from 15 groups of aquatic organisms (freshwater, brackish, marine plants and animals) using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit. This multi-lingual decision-support tool for the risk screening of aquatic organisms provides assessors with risk scores for a species under current and future climate change conditions that, following a statistically based calibration, permits the accurate classification of species into high-, medium- and low-risk categories under current and predicted climate conditions. The 1730 screenings undertaken encompassed wide geographical areas (regions, political entities, parts thereof, water bodies, river basins, lake drainage basins, and marine regions), which permitted thresholds to be identified for almost all aquatic organismal groups screened as well as for tropical, temperate and continental climate classes, and for tropical and temperate marine ecoregions. In total, 33 species were identified as posing a ‘very high risk’ of being or becoming invasive, and the scores of several of these species under current climate increased under future climate conditions, primarily due to their wide thermal tolerances. The risk thresholds determined for taxonomic groups and climate zones provide a basis against which area-specific or climate-based calibrated thresholds may be interpreted. In turn, the risk rankings help decision-makers identify which species require an immediate ‘rapid’ management action (e.g. eradication, control) to avoid or mitigate adverse impacts, which require a full risk assessment, and which are to be r

The goal of the ICES Working Group on the Introduction and Transfers of Marine Organisms (WGITMO) is to contribute to the ICES vision and mission by addressing specific science objectives related to the introduction, spread and impacts of non-indigenous marine species (NIS). The expert working group provides information and advice on the impacts of human activities (e.g. pressures caused by invasive species, litter, aquaculture, biofouling) on marine ecosystems including the Arctic. The Terms of Reference include annual national reporting on NIS detections and research, climate change impact on the spread of NIS, the risk and impacts of NIS, vectors of spread of NIS including biofouling, marine debris and aquaculture. This report summarizes the key findings and outcomes from the 2020–2022 term. A joint meeting in (2020) with WGBOSV [Ballast Water and Other Ship Vectors] and WGHABD [Harmful Algal Bloom Dynamics] was held to discuss scientific issues of joint interest including climate change in the Arctic environment, and early detection of and response to species through the use of innovative molecular tools. The discussion on molecular tools was used by the groups to develop the framework for a targeted Molecular Tools workshop in conjunction with at the International Conference for Marine Bioinvasions (ICMB) in May 2023. National activities were presented and discussed from over 20 countries each year. Common themes included, new species introduction and monitoring, recent activities on traditional and innovative methods for detection and surveillance (including molecular tools). Science highlights include the submission of the ICES biofouling viewpoint to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regarding biofouling guidelines, development and publication of a global scale NIS screening tool, and publication of a global review of NIS trends over 50 years. The Information system on aquatic non-indigenous and cryptogenic species AquaNIS continu

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Goldsmit, J., Schlegel, R. W., Filbee-Dexter, K., MacGregor, K. A., Johnson, L. E., Mundy, C. J., Savoie, A. M., McKindsey, C. W., Howland, K. L., & Archambault, P. Kelp in the Eastern Canadian Arctic: current and future predictions of habitat suitability and cover. Frontiers in Marine Science, 18, (2021): 742209. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.742209, Climate change is transforming marine ecosystems through the expansion and contraction of species’ ranges. Sea ice loss and warming temperatures are expected to expand habitat availability for macroalgae along long stretches of Arctic coastlines. To better understand the current distribution of kelp forests in the Eastern Canadian Arctic, kelps were sampled along the coasts for species identifications and percent cover. The sampling effort was supplemented with occurrence records from global biodiversity databases, searches in the literature, and museum records. Environmental information and occurrence records were used to develop ensemble models for predicting habitat suitability and a Random Forest model to predict kelp cover for the dominant kelp species in the region – Agarum clathratum, Alaria esculenta, and Laminariaceae species (Laminaria solidungula and Saccharina latissima). Ice thickness, sea temperature and salinity explained the highest percentage of kelp distribution. Both modeling approaches showed that the current extent of arctic kelps is potentially much greater than the available records suggest. These modeling approaches were projected into the future using predicted environmental data for 2050 and 2100 based on the most extreme emission scenario (RCP 8.5). The models agreed that predicted distribution of kelp in the Eastern Canadian Arctic is likely to expand to more northern locations under future emissions scenarios, with the exception of the endemic arctic kelp L. solidungula, which is more likely to lose a significant proportion of suitable habitat. However, there were differences among species regarding predicted cover for both current and future projections. Notwithstanding model-specific variation, it is evident that kelps are widespread throughout the area and likely contribute significantly to the functioning of current Arctic ecosystems. Our results emphasize the importance of kelp in Arctic ecosystems and the underestimation of their p, This work was supported by ArcticNet (P101 ArcticKelp), Fisheries and Oceans Canada Arctic Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, Arctic Science and Aquatic Invasive Species Monitoring and Research Funds, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), NRCan Polar Continental Shelf Program Support, Canadian Aquatic Invasive Species Network (CAISN), the Nunavut Marine Region Wildlife Management Board (NWMB), Quebec-Ocean, and the Ocean Frontier Institute through an award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response Network of Centres of Excellence’s (MEOPAR-NCE) Southampton Island Marine Ecosystem Project, and the Belmont Forum–BiodivERsA’s De-icing of Arctic Coasts: critical or new opportunities for marine biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ACCES). KF-D was supported by the Australian Research Council (DE190100692).

Migration is an adaptive mechanism for species to meet life cycle needs in heterogeneous habitats such as the Arctic. The Arctic Charr (Salvelinus alpinus) is a northerly-distributed, partially anadromous fish that is culturally and economically important in Nunavut, Canada. Previous studies have investigated charr migratory choices in specific areas of Nunavut, but our understanding is limited of how these vary across the territory’s freshwater ecosystems. Understanding environmental influences on charr migratory choices can give insight on population reactions to climate change. To assess the drivers behind and differences in Arctic Charr migratory ecotype distribution across Nunavut, I compiled and cleaned three pre-existing sources—the Arctic Fisheries Stock Assessment database (scientific research), the Nunavut Coastal Resource Inventory (mapped Inuit knowledge) and the Nunavut Wildlife Harvest Study (Inuit fishermen harvest records). I used generalized linear mixed models to compare 691 cleaned Inuit knowledge records of anadromous and resident charr populations to river, lake, and geographic variables. I validated these models using 51 independent scientific records and k-fold cross-validation. Inuit knowledge data had more observations across a broader geographic and environmental space. Both models strongly fit the training data, but the resident model was not transferrable to the independent data. There was substantial overlap between the models. Both anadromous and resident charr are more likely to be found in larger lakes further east, and are more readily detected close to communities. Anadromy is less likely in longer rivers, although the effect is reduced for large lakes. This analysis demonstrates that existing Inuit knowledge data is underutilized for wildlife research and management in Nunavut. Combining two complementary types of records allowed a broader scale analysis than previously. Modelling at the lake level, however, primarily identified di