Chemical Analysis of Sediment, Tissue and Water

NOTICE OF PROPOSED PROCUREMENT (NPP)

Solicitation No. 30005088A

Project Description:

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has a service requirement for Chemical analysis of animal tissues, fish feed, fish feces, water and sediment to assess environmental impacts of fish farming.

Background:

In June 2022, Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, a First Nation located just east of Marathon, Ontario licensed an aquaculture facility in the Peninsula Harbour area of Lake Superior, an area of the lake designated as an Area of Concern for mercury and PCB contamination. DFO Science surveyed sediment at the farm and at reference sites as part of a science program looking at cumulative effects. Operation of the farm for 1 growing season resulted in a visible accumulation of organic waste on the sediment and altered sediment and porewater chemistry. An unanticipated finding was that those impacts to the sediment in turn affected mercury mobility and methylation. Detection of elevated mercury methylation in the area with waste accumulation resulted in a decision by Biigtigong Nishnaabeg to suspend the farm license as well as cancellation of the DFO science project. DFO Science at the request of and in collaboration with Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, is now assessing the severity of contamination and measuring/predicting recovery trajectory by comparing how conditions change over time since farm closure.

In 2023, DFO Science, in collaboration with Biigtigong Nishnaabeg Sustainability Department staff, collected a wide range of samples from locations under and around the fish farm as well as from reference locations (sediment samples, tissue samples of invertebrates and fish, etc.). DFO Science is also conducting experiments to examine methylation of mercury in sediment and to look at mercury and methylmercury assimilation/excretion by farmed fish and these experiments will generate samples of feed, fish faecal material and water that need to be analyzed. Samples are to be analyzed for total mercury, methylmercury, organic content by loss on ignition, elemental analysis of metals via ICP-MS, and elemental carbon and nitrogen analysis.

Objective of the Requirement:

The objective of this requirement is to obtain the highest quality possible analysis of the samples for a wide suite of analytical parameters necessary to understand how fish farming is affecting ecological conditions, in particular, mercury availability and methylation.

Contract Period:
The contract is for the period from the contract award to March 28, 2024 with the option to extend the contract for one (1) period of one (1) year.