Trebek Grantees

THE FIGHT FOR HEALTHY FOOD IN CANADA’S NORTH

Awarded $45,993

Food insecurity in Canada is a real, and growing issue. Today, food insecurity is disproportionately worse in the North than elsewhere in the country, with rates of household food insecurity reaching 16.9%, 21.6% and 57% in the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut respectively. Among Northerners, Indigenous peoples are particularly at risk of being food insecure. Through a photo essay, Patrick will explore food insecurity and its impact on the people living in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, connecting land, food, water and cultural identity. Patrick will also explore how wild meat and locally-available foods have been replaced by store-bought processed food and why this is an injustice for Indigenous communities in Northern Canada. Using a visual medium to tell this story brings the issues of food insecurity and how it impacts communities to a wider audience.

THE STABILITY OF CANADA’S LAST INTACT ICE SHELF

Awarded $25,617

The ice shelves of the Canadian High Arctic are sentinels of climate change. Ice shelves sit atop the ocean and are fastened to land. Their existence often moderates the flow of glaciers, and therefore, sea level rise (SLR). However, climate change puts ice shelves at risk. Illustrative of this, the Milne Ice Shelf - the last intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic - lost 43% of its extent in a single event in July 2020. Anna and her team will travel to the Milne Ice Shelf at Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, to survey the ice shelf’s geometry and damage to collect critical data for simulating the break-up with a 3D model. These simulations will quantify the impact of sea-ice loss on the ice shelf’s stability and establish critical links for global climate modelling efforts to constrain SLR projections.

EMPOWERING CHILDREN AND YOUTH AS ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDS THROUGH EDUCATION

Awarded $49,526

Environmental education is missing from most of the Ontario education system, but a 2018 UNESCO report espouses the need for integrating this education in school systems, specifically through multidisciplinary perspectives. Meeting the needs of our global citizenry—ecologically, economically, culturally, spiritually, and more— requires understanding and creative problem-solving. Environmental education equips learners with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to address complex environmental challenges in the 21st Century. Using a unique learning delivery model through ‘Green Hope,’ Kehkashan will demonstrate how to effectively implement environmental education into education systems and transform students into environmental stewards.

STOLEN SLUMBER: THE IMPACTS OF OLD-GROWTH LOGGING ON VANCOUVER ISLAND BLACK BEARS

Awarded $21,578

In the heart of the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver Island is home to iconic coastal temperate rainforests made up of massive old-growth trees. Old-growth forest ecosystems are vital for many species, but few rely on these trees as much as Vancouver Island black bears as they are large enough to accommodate bears over the winter. Relentless logging has nearly wiped out old-growth forests in British Columbia, with only 3% of these monuments still standing. As a result, black bears are not only losing their winter sanctuaries but they are now having to compete with other bears for an ever-diminishing supply of den sites. Ryan will use aerial photography and camera trap technologies to document this devastation. Advisors on the project include Helen Davis, the leading researcher and biologist on Vancouver Island black bears who developed the first-of-its-kind, artificial den sites; and Rande Cook, an artist, old-growth advocate and member of the Kwakwakaʼwakw First Nations who will share Indigenous knowledge of the region.

TELLING THE STORY OF NATIONAL WILDLIFE CORRIDORS IN THE NORTHEAST

Awarded $75,000

With climate change, wildlife migrations are happening at record speed. Native flora and fauna are moving northward to adapt to new climate conditions. One of the biggest challenges in creating safe passageways for wildlife migration is that the corridors span multiple jurisdictions. This requires cooperation from several stakeholder groups (i.e. citizens, landowners, lawmakers etc). Since each group has its own agenda, it’s necessary to know what motivates them in order to present appropriate solutions. This project, led by Kateri and in partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, will deliver six short films featuring crucial ecological corridors across Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and one international border with the United States. The purpose of this project is to educate stakeholders about the problem, making clear what’s at stake and showcasing a wide variety of solutions that can be implemented. In an effort to garner buy-in from locals, each film will feature community members and experts from the region, and personalized call-to-actions will be added to films to ensure viewers are moving from interest to action-based commitments.

THE MOUNT MEAGER GLACIOVOLCANIC CAVE PROJECT

Awarded $39,732

Volcanic and geothermal activity on earth melts extensive ice caves into glaciers or snowpack. These features are useful indicators of heating and form a warm, moist, radiation-shielded, stable microclimate which can be hospitable to life. The highest permanent liquid water masses in Antarctica and North America are inside fumarolic ice caves. Beyond Earth, ices are prevalent in our solar system. Wherever ice undergoes phase change to liquid or vapor, caves are possible. Comparing and contrasting between Earth’s diverse range of ice caves in terms of their microclimates and their morphologies helps us imagine the properties and behaviours of caves in ice elsewhere in the solar system. The Mount Meager Volcanic Complex is Canada’s only currently active volcano. The 2016 discovery of fumarolic ice cave openings emitting volcanic gas has been of great interest to researchers. Christian and team will continue the exploration of the cave system while equipped with lifesaving equipment, to survey the extent of glaciovolcanic caves at the complex, locate the fumarolic gas emissions and assist with the deployment of a NASA rover originally designed to study icy bodies in the solar system.

KINAUNIQPUT AMMALU ARVANGNIAQTITT: EXPLORING INUIT IDENTITY AND THE INFLUENCE OF BRITISH WHALERS

Awarded $61,190

Inuit youth are stepping into new ways of being as proactive leaders, problem-solvers and knowledge holders in a context where Inuit elders are the traditional knowledge keepers, and where western scientists have commonly dismissed Indigenous knowledge systems. With funding from the Trebek Initiative, Ikaarvik (an Indigenous-led non-profit organization that bridges Indigenous Knowledge and western science) will work with Inuit youth to help reshape the narrative of Arctic exploration. Shelly Elverum (Anthropologist and Northern Coordinator) will act as a mentor, supporting youth as they discuss the multi-generational impact of modernization efforts and explore the strong connections to the 19th-century British Arctic whaling trade and the Inuit of Baffin Island. This project will create authentic, first-person perspectives of the legacy of the British whaling trade that has remained present in Inuit culture, communities and identity.

MERCURY SOURCES AND TRANSPORT IN THE YUKON RIVER BASIN

Awarded $25,638

The Yukon River basin is North America’s second largest arctic watershed. Its mercury concentrations and exports are the highest of the world's six largest arctic rivers, posing multiple threats as mercury can convert to the potent neurotoxin methylmercury that magnifies up food chains. The source of this elevated mercury is currently unknown: atmospheric contamination from across the Pacific Ocean, melting glaciers, thawing permafrost, naturally mercury-rich and erodible glacier sediment, and gold mining have all been implicated as potential sources. Kasia will travel across the Yukon and investigate the contribution of mercury from each potential source, monitoring water chemistry over one year at key tributaries that feed the Yukon River. Her work will aim to answer the important question of how vulnerable the Yukon River and other Arctic watersheds are to water quality challenges as our planet’s climate continues to warm.

EARLY SEA ICE THICKNESS MONITORING

Awarded $25,368

Landfast sea ice in Northern Canada is an extension of the “land” that allows travel and communication between local communities, fishing, hunting and other recreational activities. Current instruments measuring sea ice thickness are costly and can only be deployed once a safe ice cover is established. With his Trebek Grant, Bruno and his students at McGill University will be developing a small, low-cost, rechargeable ice buoy that measures sea ice thickness and can be deployed in open water before freeze-up, thus allowing for early and safer access by local communities. The buoy design is derived from traditional knowledge and responds to a need identified by the community.

INDIGENOUS SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY RESEARCH AND TRAINING PROGRAM

Awarded $50,009

Science and technology fields have contributed to building colonial societies whose troubled histories in turn shape modern fields today. Technoscience fields’ efforts to repair relationships with Indigenous peoples must be understood through this historical context. Dr. Kolopenuk (Cree, Peguis First Nation) is the co-founder of the Indigenous Science, Technology, and Society Research and Training Program, and she is committed to building and supporting technoscience projects that are both Indigenous-driven and Indigenous-controlled.

DIRECT EFFECTS OF GLOBAL HEATING AND HEATWAVES ON TEMPERATE-ZONE BATS

Awarded $25,638

Bats make up nearly 20% of BC’s small mammal diversity. They have uniquely large surface area to volume ratios due to their small size and large wing area. This makes them highly susceptible to overheating and dehydration, and thus more likely to be disproportionately affected by climate change. Zenon will study how temperate bats in the hottest part of Canada deal with heatwaves, while developing predictive models and inferences about how bat species from northern moderate climates will respond to the direct effects of climate change, including their survival and reproduction rates. His work will allow conservation managers to use resources optimally by identifying bat populations at the greatest risk. Understanding how the distribution of bats may change has direct implications for humans as bats provide important ecosystem services (i.e., natural pest control) and bats are reservoir hosts for several zoonotic viruses of considerable significance to human health.

WATER AS A SACRED AND SCARCE RESOURCE AMONG FIRST NATIONS RESERVES IN CANADA

Awarded $51,504

Water has significant cultural importance to Indigenous communities in Canada. Indigenous women in particular share a sacred connection to the spirit of water through their role as child bearers and have particular responsibilities to protect and nurture water. Through photos and videos, Sara will document water as a theme across four Indigenous communities in three provinces, recognizing the importance of — and reliance on — water, as well as the ongoing scarcity and contamination of water in these regions. Using medium format portraits, her work will explore how Indigenous communities rely on and interact with water, while juxtaposing this with the reality of contaminated water sources, as well as examining the impacts of industrial activity and longstanding colonial laws and policies.

BENEATH THE SURFACE: USING ROVS TO REVEAL THE IMPACTS OF QUAGGA MUSSELS ON THE GREAT LAKES

Awarded $75,000

It’s gone largely unnoticed, but over the past 20 years, some 950 trillion invasive quagga mussels have literally sucked the life out of North America’s Great Lakes. They’re trapping the basic building blocks of life, nutrients, on the lake bottom. Without nutrients, organisms of all kinds - from the tiniest plankton to the largest fish have vanished. In Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Ontario, vast offshore areas have become “biological deserts,” heralding one of the biggest changes to the Earth’s freshwaters in 10,000 years. While the consequences for nature and people are severe, the loss of life has had an extraordinary side effect. It’s made the lakes far clearer than they’ve ever been before, giving us an incredible window into the depths. With her Trebek Grant, Yvonne will use underwater drones and ultra-low light camera technologies to explore the effects of quagga mussels on the world’s largest freshwater lake system. Not only will this project help the scientific community expand their understanding of species that need our help now more than ever, but it will also capture the imagination of a public that’s never seen what’s beneath the surface.

THE EXPLORATION OF UNDERSTUDIED INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES IN THE GLOBALLY UNIQUE AND AT-RISK SAGUENAY FJORD ECOSYSTEM

Awarded $14,349

The Saguenay Fjord in Quebec is globally unique being one of the only to flow into a river rather than the open ocean. Expeditions in this area routinely discover species unknown to science. Its underwater cliffs exceeding 900 ft in depth hold productive waters brimming with invertebrates such as corals, anemones and starfish, as well an array of fishes, sharks, and marine mammals, all protected by the ‘Saguenay St. Lawrence Marine Park’. As a result of climate change, local marine conditions have been rapidly changing with an unknown impact on the equally unknown communities of invertebrates inhabiting the area. The successful management of any protected area involves understanding the local ecosystem, its health, and areas important for the continued success of its species. Through his Trebek Grant, Ryan will peel back the dark cloak of this deep-sea fjord system by conducting an unparalleled continuous video survey of the entire fjord floor more than 80km in length, as well as a number of drop camera surveys along the sea floor and the fjord walls. The project will deliver critical data to inform marine park management, produce beautiful imagery of this relatively unknown area and as an added bonus it will provide STEM mentorship opportunities for local youth.

COMPARING HISTORIC AND CURRENT CERVID POPULATION ESTIMATES IN SHUSWAP NATION TERRITORY

Awarded $49,801

Deer, moose and elk make up some of the iconic Canadian species, part of a family known as cervids. In the Columbia Valley, BC recent estimates suggest that populations of moose, elk and white-tailed deer have, or are declining, whilst local populations of mountain caribou in the South Purcells have become extirpated. Pressures on their habitats from development, forestry, fire suppression/wildfires and disturbance from put pressure on the remaining populations of these species. Rhiannon seeks to reassess ungulate populations in the Columbia Valley, primarily using camera traps, a new and more accessible method, to estimate abundance and density. This data will be compared to historical data, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge from the Shuswap Band (Kenpesq’t), to make comparisons about population trends and potential areas of wildlife management that may further help conserve these species. Rhiannon and her team will provide a summary and recommendations that could increase ungulate abundance and benefit the owners of the land. The goal is to provide a more inclusive and holistic understanding of these species present in the Columbia Valley, and to prioritize the needs of the Shuswap and other First Nations in managing these species into the future.

CONSTRUCTING FOUNDATIONS: REIMAGING HOUSING POLICY TO ACCOUNT FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS ACROSS INUIT NUNANGAT

Awarded $23,411

Across Inuit Nunangat, climate change and housing intersect in critical ways. Permafrost thaw, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion exacerbate pre-existing housing inadequacies and shortages. As a result of these intersecting crises, predominately Indigenous communities face significant challenges that stem from the legacies of colonialism embedded in housing provision and the disproportionate impacts of climate change. Policy implementation analysis relative to these two crises remains scarcely discussed within research and various levels of government. The purpose of Jenine’s research is to amplify community-identified housing needs within Inuit Nunangat, with a focus on Nunatsiavut. To do so, she will engage in visual storytelling to analyze the effectiveness of current policy. This will also highlight recommendations for future policy development. More broadly, this research will contribute to our understanding of how storytelling can be used to bridge communication gaps between governments and communities to ultimately address urgent climate change priorities.

EXPLORING AND DOCUMENTING B.C’S ENDANGERED ANCIENT FOREST

Awarded $20,912

TJ Watt uses photography to document the endangered ancient forests of B.C., highlighting their incredible grandeur and ongoing destruction. Through his Trebek Initiative grant, TJ will raise global awareness about the important role these last stands of majestic wilderness play in their ecosystem, with a goal to help ensure preservation and protection. TJ uses before and after photography as a proven method to build emotional connection, knowing that the visceral experience audiences undergo when they see the impact of clearcutting leads to new, undeniable truths. While other photographic expositions of the Anthropocene age have recently been in the public dialogue, TJ seeks to use new digital technologies to showcase the evolution of devastation caused by clear-cutting old growth to new audiences. All photographs will also be used to further broad-based public education and mobilization strategies in place.

BEYOND HER HORIZONS

Awarded $49,576

Beyond Her Horizons is an all-female polar expedition that will sail the Northwest Passage to document and honour untold stories of Canadian and Indigenous women’s involvement in Arctic exploration. Okalik Eegeesiak, former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council; Noémie Planat, polar scientist; and artist Jessica Houston will sail John Franklin’s famous route, recording stories of women whose contributions to polar exploration remain obscured in dominant colonial narratives, including those of countless Inuit women who were crucial to the survival of explorers. In doing so, Beyond Her Horizons questions the very terms “explorer” and “exploration” and challenges the Doctrine of Discovery. Photos, videos, and oral histories in Inuktitut, English, and French will be gathered before and during the expedition to showcase transdisciplinary, intergenerational narratives about and from inspirational women explorers (many of which will be shared publicly for the first time) through a series of exhibitions. This project will serve as a platform to listen to and tell stories of generations of women — living and historical — who made life-saving clothing for male explorers, were adventurers in their own right, spent their lives learning from the ocean, and charted Arctic paths before the first Europeans ever set sail for the far north.

WALKING WITH CARIBOU

Awarded $26,235

A century ago, Fortymile caribou were so plentiful that when the herd crossed the Yukon River steamboats had to tie up to the shore and wait. The herd once numbered a quarter million, but by the 1970s there were just five thousand left. The story of the Fortymile caribou herd is reminiscent of many environmental tragedies—from bison to Atlantic cod to passenger pigeons—but there’s a difference. The Fortymile caribou herd recovered. The success of the herd’s recovery has raised unexpected questions, with implications for wildlife conservation efforts beyond the Yukon’s borders. With support from the Trebek Initiative, Malkolm will build an immersive art exhibition that brings the story of the Fortymile caribou to life. He will capture photos, videos and sounds of the herd, then use these materials to replicate what it feels like to be engulfed in a herd of caribou. Digital effects will bring viewers back in time to when floods of caribou washed across the Yukon River. Community members from the local First Nation, Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, will play a critical role in the project by contributing stories about rebuilding connections to the herd that they voluntarily stopped hunting for generations. Malkolm’s work will explore the question of what happens when a population rebounds, only to return to a homeland that has been fundamentally altered by climate change and industrial development? And how are Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in reconnecting with a herd that has been absent for so long?

‘TWO-EYED SEEING'; USING LIDAR TO DOCUMENT AND ILLUSTRATE 11,000 YEARS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY IN THE GEORGIAN BAY

Awarded $67,494

Georgian Bay, Ontario is a unique North American ecosystem now recognized as an Aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark in acknowledgement of its diverse geology and landscapes. By virtue of its position along the edge of the Canadian Shield, it has been at a crossroad of cultures since people first inhabited the shores of then Glacial Lake Algonquin, 11,500 years ago. Thus began a long-lived interconnection between an evolving landscape and its occupants that has persisted in the histories and traditions of the many Indigenous cultures that have called Georgian Bay home, like the Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe and Metis. Embracing the principle of ‘two-eyed seeing’ to reconcile the Indigenous perspective and history with state-of-the art mapping technologies, Kirsten will map geo-cultural sites identified by local Indigenous and archeological partners with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology. Work completed to date shows that LiDAR imagery reveals hitherto unseen details of a site’s physical setting in a highly visual and accessible format. The results will inform planning of the UNESCO Geopark and associated educational and conservation activities. As a final educational product, LiDAR images and maps will be curated into a large format physical and digital atlas of “geo-cultural” sites around Georgian Bay.

UNDERWATER FORESTS IN A WARMING SEA: EXPLORING 50 YEARS OF CHANGE TO CRITICAL NEARSHORE HABITAT IN THE SALISH SEA

Awarded $26,097

Kelp forests and seagrass beds are important coastal ecosystems, but they are also highly vulnerable to global climate change. Yet because few long-term records of kelp and seagrass distributions exist, we have little understanding of how much of these critical ecosystems have already been lost. Working in the University of Victoria archives, Brian recently discovered hand drawn maps from a half century ago, documenting the distributions and abundances of kelp and seagrass in the Salish Sea. This inland sea on Canada’s west coast is a biodiversity hotspot that has been continuously warming over the past half century, and in the past decade has experienced a marine heatwave of globally unprecedented duration. To understand how critical habitat and foraging grounds have changed within this rapidly changing region over the past 50 years, Brian will resurvey this coastline using a combination of aerial photography and underwater video. These comparisons will shed light on how climate change and warming sea temperatures have affected marine vegetation in the Salish Sea, and will also help set historic baselines that are crucial for the effective restoration of kelp forests and seagrass beds.

DINOSAURS OF THE SPATSIZI PLATEAU

Awarded $21,319

Although dinosaur fossils are tightly associated with the badlands of southern Alberta, the mountains of British Columbia have rocks of the right age and type to contain dinosaur fossils as well. Two proof-of-concept expeditions in 2019 and 2022 to Spatsizi Plateau Wilderness Provincial Park showed that there are abundant dinosaur bones in the park, but collecting them is challenging because the park can only be accessed by helicopter. In 2023, Victoria Arbour, Curator of Palaeontology at the Royal British Columbia Museum, will lead a 10-day expedition to the high alpine region with a crew of experienced palaeontologists and university student trainees to collect new dinosaur fossils. These findings will help us understand the ancient biodiversity of northern British Columbia and the resiliency of dinosaur ecosystems prior to the mass extinction at the end of the Mesozoic Era.

COMBATTING TRACE ELEMENT DEFICIENCIES IN MUSKOXEN IN A CHANGING ARCTIC

Awarded $74,980

Muskoxen are vital to Arctic Indigenous People, providing food and income, in addition to being of spiritual and cultural importance. The rapid rate of climate change is impacting their plant-based diet and posing a real threat to their survival. Susan Kutz, trained veterinarian and Professor at the University of Calgary has demonstrated that several Arctic muskox herds are deficient in multiple key trace elements. Essential trace elements, like selenium, copper and zinc are critical to all animals for growth, immune function and reproductive health. Trace element supplementation is widely used in domestic livestock, but less often in wildlife and rarely assessed for effectiveness or unintended consequences like artificial crowding or increased disease spread. With support from the Trebek Initiative, Susan Kutz and a team of graduate students will focus on the Somerset Island muskoxen herd in Nunavut who have been identified as severely deficient in selenium and have marginal levels of zinc and copper. The team will attempt trace element supplementation, monitor take-up, improved health indicators, risks that come with supplementation, in hopes of developing a new management tool for the conservation of wild muskoxen.

UNDER THE ICE

Awarded $75,000

Algae communities that are key to understanding the health of our lakes were recently discovered living on ice ceilings in the winter months. Very few samples have been collected due to the challenging nature of accessing the ice ceilings. Scientists are hungry for these samples because the window to understand what’s going on down there is closing: each winter there is less and less ice coverage on freshwater lakes and we are losing the opportunity to understand how important ice coverage is for the health of freshwater lakes before that ice disappears forever as a result of a warming planet. With support from the Trebek Initiative, Andrew Budziak is creating a documentary that follows an elite team of ice divers in the Kenora region as they enter some of the most hostile environments on the planet to collect winter algae samples which will provide crucial information about the future of our planet’s freshwater. Through breathtaking underwater cinematography, fascinating characters and easily digestible science, Andrew’s documentary will tell the story of citizen science at its most extreme and perhaps most important.

ON THE EDGE: A STORY OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND CULTURAL RESILIENCE

Awarded $25,000

Tuktoyaktuk, a small Inuvialuit community located in the Canadian High Arctic, is disappearing into the ocean. Its coastline is eroding at an average of 0.3 to 3 meters per year and the effects are devastating including loss of land, homes and infrastructure, and significant cultural and social impacts. The erosion is caused by a combination of rising sea levels, melting permafrost, and powerful storms that batter the coastline. As the erosion continues - the community graveyard now hangs in the balance threatening the graves of the community’s ancestors as year after year, metre by metre, the land and the community disappears. But the community is fighting back. With support from the Trebek Initiative, Kaitlyn Van De Woestyne will create a short film that follows Deva-Lynn Pokiak, an Inuk mother, who has lived in Tuk her whole life. She works alongside researcher, Dustin Whalen, as a community liaison officer, documenting and mapping the erosion that threatens the community she loves. She bridges the gap between Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit knowledge and western science while community members and researchers alike race against the clock to mitigate the damage and preserve what hasn’t already been lost. Kaitlyn’s film will explore these potential solutions as research teams attempt to collect more data by mapping erosion from space and try to preserve permafrost with vegetation matts on the tundra.

HIDDEN IN THE GRASS: A YEAR IN ATLANTIC CANADA'S EELGRASS ECOSYSTEMS

Awarded $27,075

Eelgrass are climate heroes, able to remove carbon 35x faster than rainforests by sequestering oceanic or blue carbon deep into the sediment via extensive root systems. They also form expansive meadows that protect coastlines and provide critical habitats for a wide diversity of species such as eel and lobster, both important for Indigenous communities and commercial fisheries. Climate change is also negatively impacting eelgrass, up to 1/3 of which may be in decline in the Atlantic region. With Canada warming twice as fast as the world average, it is urgently important that both the public and policymakers gain awareness of the vast ecological and societal benefits eelgrass provide, and take action to support their conservation. With support from the Trebek Initiative, Nicolas Winkler (working in tandem with the Ecology Action Center, and Dalhousie University researcher and lead scientist for the Community Eelgrass Restoration Initiative, Dr. Kristina Boerder) will tell the story of eelgrass meadows over the course of four seasons on Canada’s Atlantic Coast, and support CERI as they assess eelgrass' blue carbon potential and carry out restoration studies.

BENEATH THE ICE: A FIRST LOOK AT THE ENDANGERED ST. LAWRENCE BELUGA WHALES IN THEIR WINTER HABITAT

Awarded $25,000

When ice retreated in North America after the last ice age, a small portion of the beluga whale population found themselves trapped in the St. Lawrence River. The population (especially mothers and their calves) have been declining for several decades due to habitat degradation, pollution, human disturbance and climate change. While whales have been heavily studied for the past 35 years, what they do in the winter has largely remained a mystery. As the provincial government in Quebec and the federal government prepare to expand whale protection area in the coming years it’s critical that we better understand their behaviours and winter migration patterns. After six years of aerial surveys in Quebec, Canada, a team of experts have finally pinpointed the location where beluga whales spend their winters, a long missing component. With support from the Trebek Initiative, Camille Martel will attempt to document these elusive creatures in their winter retreats via medium of short film. The goal of Camille’s work is both to inspire audiences by illuminating the wonders of our natural world, while also supporting appeals to policymakers to extend the boundaries of marine conservation areas to cover beluga whales newly identified winter habitats.

SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES MONITORING WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Awarded $27,387

As global fish stocks decline more rapidly every year, governments around the world are rushing to massively scale up their ability to monitor fishing activity. Current monitoring strategies rely on someone manually watching video footage of fishing activity - this is slow, expensive, and impossible to scale up to meet the global need. Today more than one third of all catch at sea goes unreported, threatening food security and livelihoods for over 800 million people. The world desperately needs better fisheries monitoring solutions. Alexander Dungate is at the helm of a youth-led team, OnDeck, creating artificial intelligence software that automatically detects catch and bycatch in video footage from fishing vessels, drastically reducing the time and costs needed to review fishing trips. In doing so, OnDeck makes fisheries monitoring accessible and scalable across the globe. With support from the Trebek Initiative, Alexander and the team at OnDeck will fine-tune machine learning models for key species of importance to local stakeholders, including West Coast groundfish fisheries and the Indigenous fisheries of Ha’oom. The Canadian pilot will take place in 2024 and the team will publish quantitative results of using AI for fisheries to better understand the performance of automated video review to human review and calculate the resulting benefits.

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FOOD

Awarded $136,802

Each year Canada experiences numerous devastating and uncontrollable wildfires, with governments spending billions of dollars on direct and indirect wildfire costs. While the frightening and destructive impacts of wildfires dominate news headlines, the role of fire as fundamental to species and ecosystem survival, and as an important Indigenous cultural practice, is under reported. Wildfire is a complex conservation problem because it has the potential to be at once harmful (threatening ecosystem values, human lives, and property) but also beneficial, maintaining the diversity and resilience of landscapes. The use of cultural fire through Indigenous fire stewardship provides significant benefits to ecosystems, wildlife, and human communities. Supporting Indigenous-led stewardship in Canada is critical as Indigenous Peoples are 40% more likely to be evacuated due to wildfires. With support from the Trebek Initiative, fire ecologist, Kira Hoffman will explore the ways Indigenous-led fire stewardship practices such as burning can be used to restore biodiversity in forest and grassland ecosystems surrounding the communities and throughout the traditional Lax'yip territory of the Gitanyow Nation. Kira’s project is the first of its kind in Canada, providing an opportunity for the Gitanyow Nation to restore fire to their traditional Lax-yip after 100 years of cultural and natural fire suppression.