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 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 2011 the new towfish was used to ground truth an echosounder. The surveys were performed primarily in the northern half of the lake; from 10 m depth right into the shallows at less than 1 m. Different shorelines could be distinguished from others based upon the relative proportions of substrate types and macrophyte canopy. The vast majority of macrophytes occurred within the first 3 m of depth. This zone was dominated by a thin but consistent cover of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) on almost all shores with a current or wave regime conducive to the growth of this plant. However, the eelgrass beds were frequently in poor shape and the negative impacts of commonly occurring water column turbidity, siltation, or possible localized eutrophication, are suspected. All survey data were placed into a Geographic Information System, and this document is a guide to that package. The Geographic Information System could be used to answer management questions such as the placement and character of habitat compensation projects, the selection of nearshore protected areas or as a baseline to determine long term changes. Vandermeulen, H. 2016. Video-sidescan and echosounder surveys of nearshore Bras d’Or Lake. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3183: viii + 39 p. Cite this data as: Vandermeulen H. Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat Bras d'Or Lake - River Denys 2005 - 2009. Published May 2022. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S.

This product displays for Hexachlorobenzene, median values of the last 6 available years that have been measured per matrix and are present in EMODnet regional contaminants aggregated datasets, v2022. The median values ranges are derived from the following percentiles: 0-25%, 25-75%, 75-90%, >90%. Only "good data" are used, namely data with Quality Flag=1, 2, 6, Q (SeaDataNet Quality Flag schema). For water, only surface values are used (0-15 m), for sediment and biota data at all depths are used.

This product displays for Lead, positions with values counts that have been measured per matrix for each year and are present in EMODnet regional contaminants aggregated datasets, v2024. The product displays positions for every available year.

Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat Bras d'Or Lake - Chapel Island 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 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 2011 the new towfish was used to ground truth an echosounder. The surveys were performed primarily in the northern half of the lake; from 10 m depth right into the shallows at less than 1 m. Different shorelines could be distinguished from others based upon the relative proportions of substrate types and macrophyte canopy. The vast majority of macrophytes occurred within the first 3 m of depth. This zone was dominated by a thin but consistent cover of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) on almost all shores with a current or wave regime conducive to the growth of this plant. However, the eelgrass beds were frequently in poor shape and the negative impacts of commonly occurring water column turbidity, siltation, or possible localized eutrophication, are suspected. All survey data were placed into a Geographic Information System, and this document is a guide to that package. The Geographic Information System could be used to answer management questions such as the placement and character of habitat compensation projects, the selection of nearshore protected areas or as a baseline to determine long term changes. Vandermeulen, H. 2016. Video-sidescan and echosounder surveys of nearshore Bras d’Or Lake. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3183: viii + 39 p. Cite this data as: Vandermeulen H. Bay Scale Assessment of Nearshore Habitat Bras d'Or Lake - Chapel Island 2008. Published May 2022. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S.

In 2012 and 2013, Fisheries and Oceans Canada surveyed the benthos in two areas closed to bottom contact fishing, the Narwhal Overwintering and Coldwater Coral Zone (now the Disko Fan Conservation Area, DFCA), and the Hatton Basin Voluntary Coral Protection Zone (now the Hatton Basin Conservation Area, HBCA). Samples were collected following protocols recommended by the Arctic Council’s Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Plan for the purposes of providing baseline data for future monitoring of benthic invertebrates in this sensitive region, and for facilitating pan-Arctic comparisons of benthic communities. Five biodiversity monitoring stations were established, four in the DFCA and one in the HBCA, each of which was fully sampled according to those protocols with Van Veen grabs or box corers, drop cameras and temperature recorders attached to the gear. This report summarises the grab/core-sampled benthic fauna collected during the 2012 survey of the Conservation Areas and complements another report documenting the epibenthos from the camera transects in the DFCA. Here we report on macrofauna in the 1-cm size fraction, and on foraminiferan meiofauna. The data provided is presented in the following report (see related link) : Jacobs, K., Bouchard Marmen, M., Rincón, B., MacDonald, B., Lirette, C., Gibb, O., Treble, M., and Kenchington, E. 2022. Biodiversity Monitoring Stations for Benthic Macrofauna and Meiofauna in the Disko Fan and Hatton Basin Conservation Areas. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3487: vi + 86 p. Cite this data as: Bouchard Marmen, Marieve; Rincon, Beatriz ; MacDonald, Barry; Lirette, Camille; Gibb, Olivia; Treble, Margaret ; Jacobs, Kevin; Kenchington, Ellen (2022). Biodiversity Monitoring Stations for Benthic Macrofauna and Meiofauna in the Disko Fan and Hatton Basin Conservation Areas. Published January 2023. Ocean Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/b7bcff18-698b-4d40-a7bd-13d39925cbeb

Data layers show commercial fishery footprints for directed fisheries using bottom and pelagic longlines for groundfish and large pelagics respectively, and traps for hagfish, LFA 41 and Grey Zone lobster, snow crab, and other crab on the Scotian Shelf, the Bay of Fundy, and Georges Bank in NAFO Divisions 4VWX and Canadian portions of 5Y and 5Z. Bottom longline and trap fishery maps aggregate commercial logbook effort (bottom longline soak time and logbook entries) per 2-minute grid cell using 2002–2017 data. Pelagic longline maps aggregate speed-filtered vessel monitoring system (VMS) track lines as vessel minutes per km2 on a base-10 log scale using 2003–2018 data. The following data layers are included in the mapping service for use in marine spatial planning and ecological risk assessment: 1) multi-year and quarterly composite data layers for bottom longline and trap gear, and 2) multi-year and monthly composite data layers for pelagic longline gear. Additional details are available online: S. Butler, D. Ibarra and S. Coffen-Smout, 2019. Maritimes Region Longline and Trap Fisheries Footprint Mapping for Marine Spatial Planning and Risk Assessment. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3293: v + 30 p. http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2019/mpo-dfo/Fs97-6-3293-eng.pdf

Benthic macro-infauna biomass in the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas from 1970 to 2012, displayed as decadal pattern Adapted from Grebmeier et al. (2015a) with permission from Elsevier. STATE OF THE ARCTIC MARINE BIODIVERSITY REPORT - <a href="https://arcticbiodiversity.is/findings/benthos" target="_blank">Chapter 3</a> - Page 98 - Figure 3.3.6 Cumulative scores of benthos drivers for each of the 8 CAFF-AMAs. The cumulative scores are taken from the last column of Table 3.3.1. The flower chart/plot helps to visualize the data.

This visualization product displays the total abundance of marine macro-litter (> 2.5cm) per beach, per 100m & to 1 survey aggregated over the period 2001 to 2020 from Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) monitoring surveys. EMODnet Chemistry included the collection of marine litter in its 3rd phase. Since the beginning of 2018, data of beach litter have been gathered and processed in the EMODnet Chemistry Marine Litter Database (MLDB). The harmonization of all the data has been the most challenging task considering the heterogeneity of the data sources, sampling protocols and reference lists used on a European scale. Preliminary processing were necessary to harmonize all the data: - Exclusion of OSPAR 1000 protocol: in order to follow the approach of OSPAR that it is not including these data anymore in the monitoring; - Selection of MSFD surveys only (exclusion of other monitoring, cleaning and research operations); - Exclusion of beaches without coordinates; - Some categories & some litter types like organic litter, small fragments (paraffin and wax; items > 2.5cm) and pollutants have been removed. The list of selected items is attached to this metadata (total abundance list). This list was created using EU Marine Beach Litter Baselines and EU Threshold Value for Macro Litter on Coastlines from JRC (these two documents are attached to this metadata); - Normalization of survey lengths to 100m & 1 survey / year: in some cases, the survey length was not exactly 100m, so in order to be able to compare the abundance of litter from different beaches a normalization is applied using this formula: Number of items (normalized by 100 m) = Number of litter per items x (100 / survey length) Then, this normalized number of items is summed to obtain the total normalized number of litter for each survey. Finally, a median is calculated over the entire period among all these total numbers of litter per 100m calculated for each survey. Sometimes the survey length was null or equal to 0. Assuming that the MSFD protocol has been applied, the length has been set at 100m in these cases. The size of each circle on this map increases with the calculated median number of marine litter per beach, per 100m & to 1 survey. The median litter abundance values displayed in the legend correspond to the 50 and 99 percentiles and the maximum value. More information is available in the attached documents. Warning: - the absence of data on the map doesn't necessarily mean that they don't exist, but that no information has been entered in the Marine Litter Database for this area. - This map was created to give an idea of the distribution of beach litter between 2001 and 2021 in a synthetic manner. NOT ALL BEACHES MAY HAVE DATA FOR THE ENTIRE PERIOD, SO IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO MAKE A COMPARISON BETWEEN BEACHES.

This layer details Important Areas (IAs) relevant to sponge reefs (Hexactinosida) in the Strait of Georgia (SOG) ecoregion. This data was mapped to inform the selection of marine Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA). Experts have indicated that these areas are relevant based upon their high ranking in one or more of three criteria (Uniqueness, Aggregation, and Fitness Consequences). The distribution of IAs within ecoregions is used in the designation of EBSAs. Canada’s Oceans Act provides the legislative framework for an integrated ecosystem approach to management in Canadian oceans, particularly in areas considered ecologically or biologically significant. DFO has developed general guidance for the identification of ecologically or biologically significant areas. The criteria for defining such areas include uniqueness, aggregation, fitness consequences, resilience, and naturalness. This science advisory process identifies proposed EBSAs in Canadian Pacific marine waters, specifically in the Strait of Georgia (SOG), along the west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI, southern shelf ecoregion), and in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA, northern shelf ecoregion). Initial assessment of IA's in PNCIMA was carried out in September 2004 to March 2005 with spatial data collection coordinated by Cathryn Clarke. Subsequent efforts in WCVI and SOG were conducted in 2009, and may have used different scientific advisors, temporal extents, data, and assessment methods. WCVI and SOG IA assessment in some cases revisits data collected for PNCIMA, but should be treated as a separate effort. Other datasets in this series detail IAs for birds, cetaceans, fish, geographic features, invertebrates, and other vertebrates. Though data collection is considered complete, the emergence of significant new data may merit revisiting of IA's on a case by case basis.

The analysis was performed per season using DIVA software tool (Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis). The analyses products are stored as NetCDF CF files and made available as WMS layers for easy browsing and adding. Every step of the time dimension corresponds to a 6-year moving average from 1983 to 2016. The depth dimension spans from surface to 1000 m, with 21 vertical levels. The boundaries and overlapping zones between these regions were filtered to avoid any unrealistic spatial discontinuities. This combined water body dissolved oxygen concentration product is masked using the relative error threshold 0.5. Units: µmol/l Created by 'University of Liège, GeoHydrodynamics and Environment Research (ULiège-GHER)'. The data used as input for DIVA have been extracted from the EMODnet Chemistry Download Service: https://emodnet-chemistry.maris.nl/search Intermediate regional data products: Mediterranean Sea - DIVA 4D 6-year analysis of Water body chlorophyll-a 1990/2017 v2018, Arctic Ocean - DIVA 4D 6-year analysis of Water body chlorophyll-a 1980/2017 v2018, Black Sea - DIVA 4D 6-year analysis of Water body chlorophyll-a 1990/2016 v2018, North East Atlantic Ocean - DIVA 4D 6-year analysis of Water body chlorophyll-a 1960/2017 v2018, North Sea - DIVA 4D 6-year analysis of Water body chlorophyll-a 1980/2017 v2018, Baltic Sea - DIVA 4D 6-year analysis of Water body chlorophyll-a 1980/2016 v2018