A major oil spill in the Beaufort Sea could have a “catastrophic” impact on Canada’s Arctic ecosystem and worsen the effects of climate change, a former senior government scientist has warned.

William Adams, a former scientist at Environment Canada, was one of the researchers in a joint government-industry study of the impact of an oil spill in the Canadian portion of the Beaufort Sea. The Beaufort Sea Project, which began in 1976 and lasted nearly a decade, remains the only “comprehensive” study of its kind, says Adams.

Adams told the House of Commons natural resources committee on Tuesday that a similar study in deeper waters should be conducted before Canadian regulators approve exploratory drilling in the Beaufort. The Beaufort project simulated an oil spill of roughly 1,000 barrels per day in water about 10 metres deep.

Currently, there are no offshore oil rigs operating in Canada’s Arctic waters, but exploratory drilling proposed by companies such as BP is expected to take place in depths of several hundred metres.

“I do believe that there should be a moratorium, because if you look at the leasing that has been done in the Beaufort Sea, it … extends out into the moving pack ice. I believe drilling in that area would be extremely risky,” Adams told the committee, which is studying whether offshore-drilling regulations are tough enough to safeguard against a spill on the scale of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

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