Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Extreme water level along the marine coastline is a result of a combination of storm surge, tides, and ocean waves. Future projections of climate change in the marine environment indicate that rising sea level and declining sea ice will cause changes in extreme water levels, which will impact...

Monitoring data from DFO invasive species monitoring programs, along with occurrence information from online databases and the scientific literature, have been paired with high resolution environmental data and oceanographic models in species distribution models that predict present-day and...

Description: Biophysical Units: Under the Pacific Marine Ecological Classification System (PMECS; DFO 2016; Rubidge et al. 2016), biophysical units are areas of distinct physiographic and oceanographic conditions and processes that shape species composition at spatial extents of 1000s of km....

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) National Biofouling Monitoring Program (BMP) has conducted annual field surveys to monitor the introduction, establishment, spread, species richness, and relative abundance of native and non-indigenous species (NIS) since 2006. Standardized monitoring protocols...

Climatological monthly-mean temperature and salinity data were computed for each of the 27 Line P stations (https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/data-donnees/line-p/index-eng.html). For any particular station, data were accepted as belonging to that station if the location was within 10 km of the...

Ocean physical conditions in the Maritimes Region in 2019 were characterized by cooler surface temperatures, continued warmer bottom temperatures and weaker stratification compared to recent years. Deep nutrient inventories were lower than normal over most of the region, with the exception of the...

The Department of Fisheries established a survey of demersal juvenile Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in the nearshore (<10 m deep) in 1959. This survey aimed to characterize the distribution and abundance of juvenile Atlantic cod and was based upon Norway's Flodevigen sampling program which has...

Exposure to wind-driven waves manifests an important physical gradient in the coastal zone that influences a variety of physical and biological processes (i.e., species distribution). Fetch, the unobstructed distance over which wind-driven waves can build, is a popular proxy for wave exposure at...

Pepin et al. (2014) stated that three nested spatial scales were identified as relevant for the development of ecosystem summaries and management plans: Bioregion, Ecosystem Production Unit (EPU), and Ecoregion. A bioregion is composed by one or more EPUs, while an EPU consists of a combination...

Nekton assemblages in Zostera marina beds and adjacent bare soft-sediments were sampled on the south and eastern shore of Nova Scotia. Sampling gear used were visual snorkel transects and a benthic beam trawl. Fish were identified and size either measured (trawl) or estimated in situ (snorkel...

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...

Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat - Bras d'Or Lake - Eskasoni 2007 data is part of the publication Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat Bras d'Or Lakes. A history of nearshore benthic surveys of Bras d’Or Lake from 2005 – 2011 is presented. Early work utilized drop camera and...

Monthly mean currents from Bedford Institute of Oceanography North Atlantic Model (BNAM) results were averaged over 1990 to 2015 period to create monthly mean climatology for the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, which can be considered as a representation of the climatological state of the Northwest...

Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat Bras dOr Lake - Malagawash 2007 2008 data is part of the publication Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat Bras d'Or Lakes. A history of nearshore benthic surveys of Bras d’Or Lake from 2005 – 2011 is presented. Early work utilized drop camera...

The Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment-Marine Fishes Project (2012-2014) and Canadian Beaufort Sea-Marine Ecosystem Assessment (CBS-MEA, 2017-present) conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada provide offshore surveys of marine fishes and ecosystems on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf and slope...

Bay Scale Assessment of Habitat in Bras d'Or Lake - River Denys 2005 - 2009 data is part of the publication Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat Bras d'Or Lakes. A history of nearshore benthic surveys of Bras d’Or Lake from 2005 – 2011 is presented. Early work utilized drop camera and...

A novel towfish incorporating sidescan and video hardware was used to ground truth echosounder data for the nearshore of Halifax Harbour. The resulting sampling grid extended from the shoreline to a depth of 10 m, including Bedford Basin through the Inner Harbour to the Outer Harbour. Each of...

A towfish containing sidescan and video hardware was used to map eelgrass in two shallow northern New Brunswick estuaries. The sidescan and video data were useful in documenting suspected impacts of oyster aquaculture gear and eutrophication on eelgrass. With one boat and a crew of three, the...

Geographic bathymetric grid data at 100 m x 100 m pixel resolution. Datum: WGS84 Collaboration of Canada, the United States of America and the European Union as part of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance's second project under the Galway Statement. Project mapped the North Atlantic seafloor...

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...