EVALUATING POTENTIAL RISK of INTRODUCTION of NONINDIGENOUS DINOFLAGELLATES, ASSOCIATED with BALLAST WATER RELEASED by DOMESTIC VESSEL TRANSITING to CANADIAN ARCTIC WATERS

Arctic maritime routes will open to the shipping traffic during summer times with the decrease of the sea-ice cover in the Canadian arctic. Ballast water transported by domestic vessels has been identified as a significant vector of marine and freshwater organisms’ dispersal [1] and thus significant vector for the spread of nonindigenous species (NIS) between subarctic and arctic ports like in Deception Bay (Nunavik). Several cases of introduction of NIS were observed in Oceania and more particularly in Australia and in Tasmania. Toxic dinoflagellates were listed in numerous ports, after a strong efflorescence (Hobart s port in Tasmania and Adelaide’s port in Australia) causing an upsurge of paralysing poisonings and a mortality of certain fishes and shellfish [2]. In Tasmania, the appearance of cysts of the toxic species Gymnodinium catenatu coincides with the beginning of the wooden export from the South of Tasmania towards Japan [3]. Since the last decades, the introduction of harmful organisms has been identified on the Canadian east-coast and in Great Lakes [4]. Governments spent annually between 130 and 345 millions dollars [5] for monitoring and try to stamp out these organisms and to regenerate affected ecosystems [6].