See also:

Airplane flights
 
Road Traffic

Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-op

What is happening?

• These graphs show the number of aircraft counted by ground observers at four whaling camps in the Mackenzie River delta area between late June and mid-August. Airplane overflights were more common than helicopter flights in all years except 2005 when there was a surge of helicopter activity near two stations. The number of aircraft overflights was highest in 2001 although 2005 was also very active.

Click here to show/hide map of monitoring site locations

Why is it happening?

• These overflights may reflect oil and gas exploration activity as well as tourist flights and some scheduled flights between Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik (at the East Whitefish site).

Why is it important?

• Some wildlife are sensitive to aircraft disturbance so monitoring this indicator may help identify concerns if there is an increase in activity.
• Measurements of aircraft activity related to industrial development or tourism can be used as a measure of human activities in an area.

Technical Notes

• These data have been provided by the Fisheries Joint Management Committee in Inuivik. The observations were collected by whale monitors working for local Hunter and Trapper Committees and stationed at four active whaling camps. Part of their duties included keeping track of all overflights as well as taking notes on occasions when aircraft may have harassed or disturbed whales and/or harvesters.
• There were no observations collected at the West Whitefish camp in 2002 or Hendrickson Island in 2006.