Organic Chemistry at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography

The Fisheries Act and the Oceans Act give DFO responsibility for understanding and managing the impacts of chemical pollution on the marine environment and its fisheries resources. Knowledge is needed for integrated coastal zone management and the establishment and enforcement of marine ecosystem health and marine environmental quality guidelines. Chemical knowledge is critical to efforts to protect fish habitat, manage the "no net loss" provisions of the Fisheries Act and develop a thriving, sustainable marine aquaculture industry. In order to protect the environment for future generations, we need to pay attention to the chemistry of contaminants.

Chemical investigations performed by our group address questions such as: How much chemical(s) is present? Where is it coming from? Where is it going? How is it transported? How long has it been there? How will it react? What biological effects does it have? How does its concentration compare to that in another location, species, year? The goals of our contaminants research are: to assess the present and past quality of the marine environment; to predict future changes based on present contamination rates; to identify biological effects and assess potential remediation measures.