The NTBS was designed to address the ecological concerns about pulp mill expansion, and to increase scientific knowledge about environmental conditions [ecology, ecosystem sustainability, water pollution and control, habitat, effect on fish and fishing, etc.] in the major river systems of the north. The study's objectives were to gather and interpret sound scientific information about the basins, develop appropriate recommendations for basin management, and communicate effectively with the public. The government response report confirms the governments' commitment to ecosystem sustainability and to pollution control in northern rivers. First Nations and Metis aboriginal [native] peoples contributed significantly to the NRBS.

Report of a study investigating the dissolved oxygen requirements of fish, at various life stages, in the Peace-Athabasca-Slave river basins of northern Alberta.

Adverse effects of low environmental oxygen on fish reproduction represents a distinct possibility in the Athabasca and Peace drainages. Species spawning in late fall and winter, such as burbot, would be the most likely to be impacted by low dissolved oxygen (DO). This report describes a study whose objective was to define the temporal changes in reproductive hormones, identify changes in blood electrolytes, haemoglobin, hematocrit, and blood oxygen content, and evaluate the viability of eggs and sperm for burbot during the period of sexual development under normal and hypoxic conditions. The results evaluate the potential of realistic winter water temperatures and hypoxic conditions to impair reproductive performance and induce stress in spawning burbot in the Northern River Basins Study area.

The Northern River Basins Study was established to examine the relationship between industrial, municipal, agricultural and other developments and the Peace, Athabasca and Slave River basins. Over 4 1/2 years about 150 projects or 'mini studies' were contracted by the Study under eight component categories including contaminats, drinking water, nutrients, traditional knowledge, hydrology / hydraulics, synthesis and modelling, food chain and other river uses.

Presents a study that collected and prepared fish from 23 sites along the Peace, Athabasca, and Slave river drainages in order to conduct physical, physiological, contaminant, and biophysical analyses. The primary fish species targeted for collection and analysis was burbot, used as a sentinel species for monitoring contaminants in northern waters because of its wide distribution, ease of catching, place at the top of the aquatic food chain, and large liver which can bioaccumulate organic compounds. Other species collected were northern pike, longnose sucker, and flathead chub. Specific analyses included gross pathology, metals, liver mixed function oxygenase induction, sex steroids and gonad morphology, retinols, metallothioneins, and basic life history information. Fish were also examined externally and internally for gross pathological abnormalities and deformities. Appendices contain descriptions of fish collection and handling protocols, as well as detailed data.