Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I'd like to emphasize that Dr. Reed is here with me today. Dr. Reed is a scientist emeritus with Environment Canada, and he is an expert on goose populations in northern Quebec and elsewhere in North America and their relationship with eelgrass.
Dr. Reed has provided much of the information on the technical side of things that are involved in my introduction, and he's going to be able to respond to technical questions relating to waterfowl and their linkages with eelgrass.
I'll be summarizing Environment Canada's information on eelgrass in eastern James Bay and its importance as a food supply for waterfowl. Much of this is a repeat of what you heard from the Cree presenters earlier on.
Eelgrass is an aquatic plant that occurs in large beds in shallow, relatively warm, sheltered coastal waters of James Bay, particularly in the areas of fine sediments, low tidal range, and moderate to high salinity. These eelgrass beds, as you've already heard, are very important in the coastal ecosystems of the bay. They provide shelter for the many small fish and invertebrates, food for many animals, and from our point of view they're important as food sources for ducks, Canada geese, and in particular brant geese.
Steve Curtis, who is a biologist with Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service, was one of the first to survey the very productive eelgrass beds along the coast of James Bay in the early 1970s. The importance was identified before hydroelectric development took place on the rivers that flow into the bay. Later on, Hydro-Québec took responsibility for conducting quantitative surveys of eelgrass abundance in James Bay, and they used six permanent stations that were mostly close to the mouth of the La Grande River. This monitoring was undertaken initially in 1988 and was repeated most years until 1995. So it was the period after the first dams were put in place on the La Grande. These surveys identified that these coastal eelgrass beds were among the most productive in North America.
The monitoring undertaken by Hydro-Québec was repeated in 1999 and 2000. During this period they detected a severe decline in the amount of eelgrass present. Since then, a largely qualitative survey, as opposed to the earlier quantitative ones, was undertaken in 2004, and this indicated that eelgrass was still at low levels.
The causes of decline in eelgrass, from our point of view, in James Bay are not clearly understood. In addition to being vulnerable to changes in water levels, water temperatures, and salinity, as well as to the effects of human disturbance on sediments, eelgrass is susceptible to this wasting disease that Chief Pachano referred to earlier, caused by the slime mould labyrinthula. It's well known that outbreaks of this disease have caused eelgrass to decline significantly in other areas. Particularly, up to 90% of eelgrass was lost to this disease on the Atlantic coasts of North America and Europe during the 1930s. However, to our knowledge, no link has been confirmed between this wasting disease and declines of eelgrass in the James Bay area.
Environment Canada has collaborated in publishing the characteristics of the eelgrass meadows and habitat use by waterfowl in 1990 and 1991, and Dr. Reed was one of the authors of these reports.
We're not aware of more recent quantitative information as a result of studies on eelgrass meadows, but there may have been some that we haven't been aware of, particularly in areas farther south than those being described by the Cree representatives in the earlier sessions.
I want to emphasize that our interest as Environment Canada focuses particularly on waterfowl use. James Bay is recognized as one of the most important stopover areas in North America for migrating geese and ducks. They pause here for several weeks in their spring migration from southerly wintering areas to their breeding grounds in the far north and again on their southbound fall migrations. While they're in James Bay, water fowl feed intensively in these rich coastal habitats to replenish energy reserves that allow them to continue their flights to the next stage of their annual cycle.
Eelgrass beds provide important food for several species of waterfowl, most particularly for Atlantic brant geese. Atlantic brant are small geese that are very closely associated with marine waters. They breed in low-lying coastal areas on the islands in Fox Basin, which is in Canada's central Arctic, and they overwinter in coastal New England, mostly from Massachusetts to North Carolina. They migrate through Canada, stopping at staging areas on the Quebec and Ontario coasts of James Bay, both in the spring and the fall, for up to a month at a time. Throughout their migration and their overwintering periods, Atlantic brant rely very heavily on eelgrass for food, although they do eat a range of other salt marsh grasses and sedges while they're on their Arctic breeding grounds.
Research undertaken by Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service in collaboration with Hydro-Québec and members of the Cree community, mostly in the early 1990s, documented that almost all feeding by brant in the James Bay area occurred in eelgrass beds, and that almost all the food they consumed was leaves of eelgrass. Canada geese and black ducks—which you've heard mentioned already—also fed on eelgrass beds to some extent, but they weren't confined to those areas. And several sea duck species also fed on numerous small organisms harboured by the eelgrass ecosystem. Again, these observations have been published in reports that are available and have been co-authored by Dr. Reed.
There haven't been sufficient recent surveys to assess whether the number of waterfowl moving through James Bay has declined overall. Nevertheless, there is good information that large numbers of waterfowl species still do occur in the bay while migrating; and recent studies by Environment Canada and its U.S. partners indicate that the entire population of Atlantic brant moves through James Bay—although it seems that a higher proportion of migrating brant may now actually be staging, or spending their time in migration, on the western side of James Bay, in Ontario, as opposed to the eastern coast of James Bay, which would have been the area of concern discussed by the Cree representatives in the earlier session.
In closing, I want to refer to Environment Canada's role in understanding the situation. Through the Migratory Birds Convention Act, Environment Canada has the responsibility for the conservation of migratory birds, including waterfowl. In most of its research and monitoring activities, Environment Canada takes a partnership role with other organizations; we rarely do things on our own. We understand the importance of working in partnership. That involves the collection, interpretation, and the response to the ecological information. Environment Canada has followed this approach with respect to understanding the relationships between waterfowl and eelgrass and larger changes within the James Bay coastal ecosystem.
Although we have responsibility for the conservation of migratory birds, including waterfowl, the protection of most wildlife habitats falls under provincial jurisdiction. Our friends from DFO, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, will be describing their role as a follow-up to my presentation. What this emphasizes to our department is the need for cooperative approaches to research, monitoring, and management of all components of the coastal systems of the bay.
In closing, I'd like to acknowledge the partnerships that my department, Environment Canada, has relied on with the Cree community, Hydro-Québec, the Government of Quebec, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and several private consulting organizations, who together have been instrumental in understanding the ecosystem of James Bay, and eelgrass and waterfowl in particular.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.