Feasibility of including reproductive outcomes in oil sands wildlife biomonitoring programs

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Although the oil sands industry provides significant economic benefits to Canada, the development of thisresource has not been without controversy. Indeed, there have been a number of concerns regarding the impactof the oil sands industry on the environment and human health. As a result, in 2012 the Joint Oil SandsMonitoring (JOSM) program was established; this monitoring program is paid for by oil sands producersincluding the 13 member companies of the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA). Despite the factthat concerns about adverse reproductive outcomes resulting from oil sands activities have been raised byscientists, environmental groups and community organizations, there have been no assessments of reproductiveoutcomes as part of this program. There is clear evidence from laboratory studies that exposure to chemicalsand metals which are related to oil sands activity can have profound effects on reproduction in mammals. It hasbeen suggested that river otters may serve as indicators for individual and population-level health risks to bothwildlife and humans. Therefore the goal of this project is to determine if reproductive outcomes can bedetermined in otters that are being collected as part of the JOSM hunter-trapper harvested wildlife toxicologymonitoring program.