Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Funded through DFO's Strategic Program for Ecosystem-based Research and Advice (SPERA), this benthic survey covers several seabed areas adjacent to Deer Island and Campobello Island, the Wolves Islands, and Grand Manan (NB) over a two-year study period (2016-2017). One hundred and fifty drift...

Chemical and biological oceanographic conditions observed in the Maritimes Region in 2022 are presented. Surface and deep inventories of nitrate and silicate were near or above normal in the eastern part of the region while the surface and deep phosphate inventories remained near or below normal...

The data layer (.shp) presented is the result of an unsupervised classification method for classifying seafloor habitat on German Bank (off South West Nova Scotia, Canada). This method involves separating environmental variables derived from multibeam bathymetry (Slope, Curvature) and backscatter...

Emerald Basin on the Scotian Shelf off Nova Scotia, Canada, is home to a globally unique aggregation of the glass sponge Vazella pourtalesi, first documented in the region in 1889. In 2009, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) implemented two Sponge Conservation Areas to protect these sponge...

PURPOSE: In this study, we examined the structure and function of the Southampton Island marine food web across 149 species of benthic and pelagic invertebrates, fishes, marine mammals and seabirds collected from 2016 to 2019, to provide a baseline for future studies that aim to quantify...

MODIS-Aqua Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) was acquired from the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group where Chl-a concentration was calculated using the OC3/OCI method. The months of January and December were excluded from these datasets, as data in the winter months at higher latitudes are missing due to...

In 2009, Fisheries and Oceans Canada published the Policy on Managing the Impacts of Fishing on Sensitive Benthic Areas. To support the implementation of this policy, a Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS) process was initiated to: assess the distribution of fishing effort in Canada’s...

MODIS-Aqua night long-wave Sea Surface Temperature (SST) images were acquired from the NASA Ocean Biology Processing Group at processing Level-2 (version 2018), 1-km resolution, spanning the period 2003-01-01 to 2020-12-31. Image pixels were aligned and mapped to a regular grid using the SeaDAS...

The assessment of the status of eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds at the bay-scale in turbid, shallow estuaries is problematic. The bay-scale assessment (i.e., tens of km) of eelgrass beds usually involves remote sensing methods such as aerial photography or satellite imagery. These methods can fail...

The assessment of the status of eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds at the bay-scale in turbid, shallow estuaries is problematic. The bay-scale assessment (i.e., tens of km) of eelgrass beds usually involves remote sensing methods such as aerial photography or satellite imagery. These methods can fail...

A history of nearshore benthic surveys of Bras d’Or Lake from 2005 – 2011 is presented. Early work utilized drop camera and fixed mount sidescan. The next phase was one of towfish development, where camera and sidescan were placed on one platform with transponder-based positioning. From 2009 to...

Catch, effort, location (latitude and longitude), and associated biological data from the Eulachon Migration Study Bottom Trawl surveys - North on the coast of British Columbia. Introduction: The Eulachon Migration Study Bottom Trawl survey - North (Eul-N) is part of the in the Eulachon...

The assessment of the status of eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds at the bay-scale in turbid, shallow estuaries is problematic. The bay-scale assessment (i.e., tens of km) of eelgrass beds usually involves remote sensing methods such as aerial photography or satellite imagery. These methods can fail...

This geodatabase includes hotspot maps of 1) nearshore habitat richness, 2) diversity (fish and invertebrates), and 3) biomass (using catch per unit effort of fish and invertebrates), as well as two layers showing the spatial extent of the diversity and biomass hotspot analyses. Full details...

A novel, bay – scale (i.e. tens of km) survey method was employed to examine algal populations on the southwestern shore of Cape Breton, Canada, for the purposes of potential economic exploitation. Since traditional remote sensing methods were unlikely to be successful in these waters, underwater...

Catch, effort, location (latitude and longitude), and associated biological data from the Eulachon Migration Study Bottom Trawl surveys - South on the coast of British Columbia. Introduction: The Eulachon Migration Study Bottom Trawl survey - South (Eul-S) is part of the in the Eulachon...

Towfish (sidescan and video) and echo sounder surveys were utilized to examine bottom type and macrophyte cover within the area of two coastal marine finfish aquaculture sites, one in New Brunswick (Welch Cove) and one in Nova Scotia (Jordan Bay). Both towfish and echo sounder data could be used...

Effective fisheries and habitat management processes require knowledge of the distribution of areas of high ecological or biological significance. On the Scotian Shelf and Slope, a number of benthic ecologically or biologically significant areas consisting of habitat-forming species such as...

Towfish (sidescan and video) and echo sounder surveys were utilized to examine bottom type and macrophyte cover within the area of two coastal marine finfish aquaculture sites, one in New Brunswick (Welch Cove) and one in Nova Scotia (Jordan Bay). Both towfish and echo sounder data could be used...

Catch, effort, location (latitude and longitude), and associated biological data from the Eulachon Migration Study Bottom Trawl surveys on the coast of British Columbia. Introduction: The Eulachon Migration Study Bottom Trawl surveys are divided into two parts; the Eulachon Migration Study...