Satellite program aims to reduce marine pollution

The Canadian marine environment is the crossroads of the North Atlantic and Pacific for both transportation and seabird populations. The illegal release of oily wastes from ships travelling in Canadian waters is an ongoing issue and immediate challenge to the conservation and protection of the marine environment.

Over 25 species of marine birds in Canada are vulnerable to marine oil pollution because of their habitat and behaviour. On the east coast, some 30 million seabirds from Newfoundland, Labrador, the Eastern Arctic and Greenland winter in the waters off the southeast coast of Newfoundland every year. It is also estimated that in these waters, over 300 000 of these birds are oiled and killed annually. Similar statistics are not yet available for other Canadian waters, but significant negative impacts could potentially occur off the west coast. If the illegal oiling and killing of seabirds is not stopped, their populations could suffer long-term negative impacts.

On November 1^st 2006, Environment Canada's Canadian Ice Service took a significant step forward in the battle against marine pollution by assuming operational responsibility of the Integrated Satellite Tracking of Pollution (ISTOP) program.

ISTOP is a satellite surveillance program for the detection of possible discharges of oil due to marine transportation and offshore oil production. It is a collaborative project that uses satellite image information to direct surveillance aircraft to suspected oil spill sites. It enables the routine monitoring of waters under Canadian jurisdiction through the collaboration and coordination of surveillance resources from multiple federal departments and agencies and private industry. The ISTOP project team also includes the Canadian Space Agency, Transport Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard.

ISTOP evolved from a science and technology concept to a demonstration project with a private sector partner (MDA Geospatial) and ultimately to an operational program.

Integrating aircraft monitoring and satellite imagery

In January 2005, Transport Canada and the Canadian Ice Service began to use a Transport Canada DASH-8 aircraft for combined pollution and ice surveillance over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River and Newfoundland offshore waters. In summer 2005, a DASH-7 aircraft was used primarily by the Canadian Ice Service to monitor ice conditions, and a few pollution surveillance flights were conducted in the Arctic. Since that time, both aircraft have been used for the dual mission of ice and pollution surveillance over Canadian waters.

With ISTOP, the Canadian Ice Service will use their expertise with satellite Earth Observation data to help direct aircraft to spills for confirmation, tracking and collection of evidence for prosecution.

An image analyst can look at an image of 90 000 sq. kilometres of ocean and in minutes determine if a suspected oil anomaly is present. The same area would take several hours to survey using an aircraft. However, the Pollution Prevention Officer on the aircraft can visually confirm the presence of oil in an area the satellite cannot. Hence the combination of the two is very effective.