Pollutants Affecting Whales and their Prey Inventory Tool (PAWPIT)
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is taking action to reduce the threat of contaminants to endangered whale populations in Canadian waters. To support these efforts, ECCC has developed a pollutant inventory and web-based visualization tool.
The Pollutants Affecting Whales and their Prey Inventory Tool (PAWPIT) is an interactive mapping tool that shows estimates of pollutant releases from all identified sources within the habitats of Northern and Southern Resident Killer Whales, St Lawrence Estuary Belugas, and their primary prey.
PAWPIT allows users to:
- visualize pollutant hotspots and identify where releases or freshwater loads are highest, where multiple stressors converge (regional cumulative effects), and where the pollutant risks to whales and their ecosystems may be heightened
- identify pollutant sources and pathways that are contributing pollutants to aquatic ecosystems, such as mining operations, wastewater treatment plants, seafood processing plants, pulp and paper plants, and stormwater runoff, and assess their relative contributions
- filter the data by location, region, source-type, or pollutant-type
- see where environmental protection guidelines are being exceeded and for which pollutants
- assess where targeted actions could be prioritized on the basis of the above
- download the data for further analysis
Beyond identifying pollutant hotspots, PAWPIT is an integrated decision-support tool that enables users to examine cumulative exposure across multiple pollutants and sources. By visualizing geospatial data on contaminant releases, ambient loads, and exceedances of environmental quality guidelines, the tool helps reveal areas where multiple stressors converge, illustrating the environmental pressures on whale populations and their prey.
PAWPIT is accessible using all browsers except Microsoft Internet Explorer. Go to PAWPIT-OIPABP or contact us for more information: enviroinfo@ec.gc.ca.