Mariculture includes several different types of activities in public marine areas, such as the cultivation and harvesting of seaweed, the harvesting of green urchins, and the breeding of blue mussels or scallops, among others. Each of these activities has very distinct environmental, physicochemical and biological needs, in addition to having to coexist safely with other human activities and constraints in the maritime environment. For these reasons, mariculture activities must take place in delimited and reserved marine areas, and therefore require a permit.

The “Maricolous Sites” data set brings together under provincial coverage (polygons) the information contained in the permits issued by the regional directorates. It identifies businesses, and presents their permit numbers, types of activities and species that they are authorized to raise, as well as the location and area of sites (polygons) under permits and authorizations to operate a mariculture site issued by MAPAQ.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**