This poster was presented at the Sustainability and Environmental Research Symposium, Dalhousie University, Halifax, March 14th 2008. Authors: David Waugh, Stephanie Keast, Michael Hingston, Lisa Phinney, Colleen Farrell, Gerry Forbes, Doug Worthy, Senen Racki, Johnny McPherson, Rob Tordon, Steve Beauchamp, and Tracey Inkpen.



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Sable Island’s Airshed Monitoring Program began in June 2003. It was established to measure and identify sources of ambient air emissions in the Scotian Shelf region, and particularly to obtain baseline air quality data as offshore energy resources are developed. Also, the island’s location downwind of emission sources in continental North America—in the continent’s “tail pipe”—makes it an important site for study of long term trends in air quality in an otherwise pristine environment. The airshed program on Sable Island is supported by the Environmental Studies Research Fund (ESRF). Initiated in 1983, the Fund sponsors environmental and social studies, and is designed to assist in the decision-making process related to oil and gas exploration and development. The ESRF receives its legislative mandate through the Canada Petroleum Resources Act (proclaimed in February 1987). The financial resources for the ESRF are provided through levies on frontier lands—including offshore areas such the Scotian Shelf—paid by interested holders such as oil and gas companies. The ESRF is directed by a 12-member Management Board which has representation from the federal government (4), the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board (1), the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (1), the oil and gas industry (4), and the general public (2). The ESRF is administered by a small secretariat within the National Energy Board. Sable Island is designated as a Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) site for greenhouse gas monitoring. The GAW was established in 1989 by the World Meteorological Organization (a United Nations agency) to monitor trends in Earth's atmosphere. The GAW consists of a worldwide system of observing stations and support facilities that provides data needed to understand the behaviour of the atmosphere and its interactions with the oceans and the biosphere, and ultimately to predict environmental changes on both regional and global scales. More than 65 countries presently host and operate the GAW’s global or regional measurement instrumentation. Five World Data Centres—one of which is located in Toronto, Canada—are responsible for gathering and storing atmospheric data from GAW stations worldwide, and making it freely available to researchers.

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