Fisheries and Oceans Canada

This dataset includes metrics of seagrass productivity and resilience collected from field sites along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Field sites were located across a gradient of temperature and light conditions. Sampling was conducted monthly from May 2018 to July 2019. Seagrass...

This dataset is a compilation of numerous data files recovered as part of a data request in 2024 from a historical archive of DFO research data. Sediment and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) samples were collected over more than a decade as part of Dr. Douglas Loring’s research program while...

11 tagged Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) were tracked during the daytime movements as well as the feeding behaviour in the St. Lawrence River estuary. Kernel density was applied to derminate the high density feeding areas of all individuals combined (30, 40, 50, 60, 75, 95 %)....

The blue whale (Balaenopterus musculus) is a wide-ranging cetacean that can be found in all oceans, inhabiting coastal and oceanic habitats. In the North Atlantic, little is known about blue whale distribution and genetic structure, and if whether animals found in Icelandic waters, the Azores, or...

In 1998, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) published an atlas called "Traditional Fisheries Knowledge for the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence". The document is composed of a series of maps that contain useful information primarily on nearshore fisheries and fish habitat in the eastern shore of New...

Fecundity of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) was estimated within five spawning areas (German Bank, Scots Bay, Seal Island, Southern Shore Nova Scotia, and Eastern Shore Nova Scotia) in Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) areas 4WX in 2019 and 2020. The objective of this project...

The Fieldnotes dataset represents anticipated locations of science field research and monitoring to be conducted throughout the year by Fisheries and Oceans Canadas' Pacific Science team and collaborators in the Northeast Pacific and Arctic oceans, and in the coastal and interior waters of...

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...

The lobster recruitment project is run by the Fishermen and Scientist Research Society (FSRS) through DFO funding. Fishermen participating in the lobster recruitment project collect information about lobster in their fishing area by fishing 2-5 scientific project traps (SPTs) (fished in fixed...

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has worked with partners and ocean users to develop a draft conservation network plan for the Scotian Shelf-Bay of Fundy Bioregion. This work led to the 2017 draft conservation network plan. The draft plan was updated after targeted consultations from 2021 to...

Kernel density estimation (KDE) utilizes spatially explicit data to model the distribution of a variable of interest. It is a simple non-parametric neighbour-based smoothing function that relies on few assumptions about the structure of the observed data. It has been used in ecology to identify...

Since 2005, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has been collecting monitoring data for aquatic invasive species (e.g. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/8d87f574-0661-40a0-822f-e9eabc35780d, https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/503a957e-7d6b-11e9-aef3-f48c505b2a29,...

The Scotian Shelf population of northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus) is listed as Endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. Partial critical habitat was identified for this population in the Recovery Strategy first published in 2010 (Fisheries and Oceans Canada 2016), and three...

A benthic imagery survey was conducted along the Eastern Scotian Slope in June 2018 to collect data in support of a Strategic Program for Ecosystem-Based Research and Advice project to evaluate the effectiveness of the Lophelia Coral Conservation Area and identify new areas of importance for...

The Species at Risk (SAR) Program is responsible for carrying out DFO’s mandate under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) to protect, recover and conserve all listed aquatic SAR in Canada. As part of this mandate, this spatial database has been developed to identify areas in which aquatic species...

The Species at Risk (SAR) Program is responsible for carrying out DFO’s mandate under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) to protect, recover and conserve all listed aquatic SAR in Canada. Critical habitat is identified for species listed as Endangered or Threatened under the Species at Risk Act...

Funded under DFO's Marine Conservation Targets Program, this optical imagery benthic survey documents the occurrence and estimated percent cover of the invasive colonial tunicate, Didemnum vexillum in seven drift-camera transects in the 'Head Harbour/West Isles Archipelago/The Passages'...

The Coastal Environmental Baseline Program is a multi-year Fisheries and Oceans Canada initiative designed to work with Indigenous and local communities and other key parties to collect coastal environmental data at six unique sites across Canada, including the Port of Saint John (New Brunswick)....

Between 2001 and 2004 a descriptive and comparative investigation of the benthic macro-infauna in 17 pockmarks and 10 reference locations outside pockmarks in Passamaquoddy Bay-Bay of Fundy- was made. This dataset contains the locations of the grab samples for each pockmark in the study area,...

This collection of eelgrass data has been collated to produce a national map of the location and distribution of eelgrass beds across Canada. The data providers collaborating in this initiative include Federal, Provincial and Municipal government departments and agencies, academia,...