Polar Outreach Catalogue

During the IPY students participated in a clean-up at a 50 year abandoned mine in Nunavik, an arctic region of Canada. The remoteness and the inability to locally process waste make reclamation difficult. This was the fourth clean-up sponsored by Cruise North and the first to involve Inuit students. The ship?s crew aided volunteers in accessing the mine site, loading waste aboard the ship and transporting the collected debris for disposal or recycling at facilities in the south. The students from Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq, Quebec were selected based on attendance and a written submission about the IPY and the role of youth in environmental protection. The main goals included: land reclamation, exposure to professionals and careers and volunteering in their community. On site, students spent three days identifying, collecting and preparing waste to be loaded on the ship via helicopter. They also worked with an environmental technician to collect and test soil for contamination.