Lead: Myra Robertson, Environment Canada
The Beaufort Sea Region provides marine and coastal habitat for hundreds of thousands of migrating and breeding birds. This project is identifying important nearshore and coastal nesting, feeding, and migration areas. The study is compiling existing information on coastal bird usage and identifying species, numbers, and distribution of birds. A digitized GIS is used to identify bird sensitivity areas in the Beaufort Sea based on available information. The information will be valuable to oil and gas developers and regulators through the environmental assessment process to ensure that negative impacts of development on birds are minimized.