Huntsman Marine conducts ongoing seawater surveillance, partners with the Province of New Brunswick for air quality and weather monitoring, and provides archival support for the legacy Gulfwatch mussel samples in partnership with Fisheries & Oceans Canada.

 

Gulfwatch Contaminants Monitoring Program

 

Huntsman Marine provides archival support, with funding from Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Marine Environmental Quality Program, for the collected Gulfwatch mussel samples.

 

Gulfwatch was a transboundary chemical contaminants monitoring program organized and administered by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (GOMC). The program ran formally from 1993 – 2012 and involved the collection of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) at rotating sites in all jurisdictions around the Gulf of Maine (i.e., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts). More details related to the Gulfwatch program may be viewed on the program website here.

 

The existence and preservation of these samples presents an invaluable opportunity to:

• gain a regional perspective on the distribution and concentrations of toxic contaminants,

• establish a baseline reference for future monitoring efforts, and

• improve our understanding of issues that threaten the overall environmental quality of coastal waters within the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy region.

 

Researchers interested in accessing archived samples must submit a research proposal to the Gulfwatch Archive Steering Committee. Proposal submission guidelines must be followed as outlined within the Gulfwatch Management Plan.