This resource documents a dataset of epifauna occurrences collected in 2021 during The Knowledge and Ecosystem-Based Approach in Baffin Bay (KEBABB) program developed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in collaboration with university partners. The overall objective of KEBABB is to characterize the variability and trends in physical, chemical, and biological oceanographic conditions and food webs supporting fisheries in the connected ecosystems of western Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound. In 2021, DFO expanded the KEBABB program to Barrow Strait (KEBABS-Knowledge and Ecosystem-Based Approach in Barrow Strait), a key productive area of the Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area. The study took place in the Eastern Canadian Arctic (mainly in Baffin Bay, Davis Strait and Barrow Strait). Sampling is done along transects at fixed stations in the study area. Catches are collected with a 1.5 m Agassiz trawl (5 mm mesh net) for 3 minutes bottom-contact time at a target speed of 1.5 knots and with a 3 m benthic beam trawl (6.4 mm mesh net) for 15 minutes bottom-contact time at a target speed of 3 knots. A total of 16 stations were sampled for epifauna in 2021 between 85-850 m depth. Epibenthic invertebrates are identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level and photographed. All unknown specimens are frozen. In the lab, the identifications are validated or refined with the photos and the frozen specimens. The data are presented in Darwin Core and are separated in two files: The “Activité_épifaune_KEBABB_epifauna_event_en” file which contains information about missions, stations and deployments, which are presented under a hierarchical activity structure. The “Occurrence_épifaune_KEBABB_epifauna_en” file that contains the taxonomic occurrences. Further details on sampling can be found in the following report: Pućko, M., Charette, J., Tremblay P., Brulotte S., St-Denis B., Ciastek S., Hedges, K., Kuzyk, Z., Roy V., and Michel, C. 2022. An ecosystem-based approach in the eastern Arctic: KEBABB/S (Knowledge and Ecosystem-Based Approach in Baffin Bay/Barrow Strait) 2021 expedition report. Can. Manuscr. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3250: viii + 58 p. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2022/mpo-dfo/Fs97-4-3250-eng.pdf USE LIMITATION: To ensure scientific integrity and appropriate use of the data, we would encourage you to contact the data custodian.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada (Northern Contaminants program) have been working with Nunavut community Hunters and Trappers Organizations and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board consistently since 1980 to collect samples from harvested ringed seals. The majority of seals were measured in the field by Inuit hunters who recorded date of kill, sex and blubber depth at sternum (0.5 cm). The data from the harvested animals are used to evaluate stressors and overall seal health, in the Canadian Arctic.

The Biodiversity Science Database is a compilation of fish community data from DFO Science Surveys. Data includes: sampling site, date, fish counts, fish species, and associated habitat information.

From August 2nd to September 9th, 2013, Fisheries and Oceans Canada conducted a baseline survey of marine fishes and their habitats on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf and slope. Sampling was conducted from the F/V Frosti at 64 stations along ten transects. Standardized sampling was conducted on the transects at pre-determined depth stations (20-40, 75, 200, 350, 500, 750, and 1000 m) using a variety of sampling equipment including benthic fishing trawls, plankton nets, sediment cores, and CTD and water sample profiles. A specialized CTD probe (UCTD) was deployed at an additional 72 locations while the ship was underway.Presented here is the information on the sampling locations, and the sampling gear deployed at each station.

The purpose of this study was to characterize the kelp bed at Batture-aux-Alouettes, a preferred food source for the green sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis). The green urchin is fished commercially in Quebec and the fishing effort is concentrated on the Batture-aux-Alouettes near Tadoussac, at the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord. The study was conducted in two separate phases in 2018 and 2019. The main objective of this study was to determine the abundance and biomass of the kelp bed at Batture-aux-Alouettes. The first phase, using a stratified random sampling design, was conducted from August 21th to August 24th, 2018. Sampling of two 50 x 50 cm quadrats, separated by a distance of approximately 30 m, was conducted at eleven sites during twelve dives in the eastern section of the Batture-aux-Alouettes to collect kelp for biomass estimation and macroalgal species richness assessment. In the second phase, a total of 429 stations were first sampled between July 15 and 18, 2019 with a camera system dropped in two 50 x 50 cm quadrats. The presence or absence of kelp, percent macroalgal cover, and substrate type were assessed for each photo. As a result of this underwater photographic analysis, 129 of these stations were identified as having a presence of kelp and 88 of these stations had a presence of other algal species. To ensure equal representation of the different depth strata, the stations with kelp were divided into three depth categories: shallow (-1.7 m to 0 m), medium (0 m to 2 m) and deep (2 m to 5 m). Dives were conducted from August 13 to 15, 2019, at ten of these stations using a stratified random sampling design, taking care to ensure a balanced spatial distribution as well as an equal distribution of the different depth strata (four in the shallow, three in the medium, and two in the deep). Sampling of the 50 x 50 cm dive quadrat took place at three different distances spaced 5 m apart from a transect, i.e. at the 3 m (_3m), 8 m (_8m) and 13 m (_13m) mark. If there was little or no kelp in the quadrat, the quadrat sampling could be repeated for up to four quadrats per distance for a total area of 1 m². Two additional quadrats were conducted (_x) at two stations. Biomass assessment was also done via "cookie cutter" sampling (_CC). Divers took the same 50 x 50 cm quadrat and placed it on a selected (i.e., non-random) plot with 100% kelp cover. The three files provided (DarwinCore format) are complementary and are linked by the "eventID" key. The "event_information" file includes generic information about the event, such as date and location. The "additional_information_event_and_occurrence" file includes sample size, protocol and sampling effort. The "taxon_occurrence" file includes the taxonomy of the species observed, identified to the species or lowest possible taxonomic level. To obtain the abundance and biomass assessment of the kelp bed at Batture-aux-Alouettes, contact Rénald Belley (renald.belley@dfo-mpo.gc.ca). For quality control, the organisms were identified in the field fallowing the guide: Chabot, Robert et Anne Rossignol. 2003. Algues et faune du littoral du Saint-Laurent maritime : Guide d'identification. Institut des Sciences de la mer de Rimouski, Rimouski; Pêches et Océans Canada (Institut Maurice-Lamontagne), Mont-Joli. 113 pages. The taxonomy was checked against the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) to match recognized standards and using the R obistools and worrms libraries. The WoRMS match was placed in the "scientificNameID" field of the occurrence file. All sample locations were spatially validated. This project was funded by DFO Coastal Environmental Baseline Program under Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan. This initiative aims to acquire environmental baseline data contributing to the characterization of important coastal areas and to support evidence-based assessments and management decisions for preserving marine ecosystems.

Summary The Quebec region of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is responsible for the assessment of several fish and invertebrate stocks exploited in the Estuary and the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence. The commercial catches sampling program is one of the sources of information used to complete these assessments. The data collected by this program, at wharf or at sea, offers among other things the advantage of a relatively large spatio-temporal coverage and provides some of the necessary knowledge to assess the demography and the structure of the exploited populations. This program is implemented by specialized DFO staff whose main mandate is to collect biological data on groundfish, pelagic fish and marine invertebrate species that are commercially exploited in the various marine communities. Data This dataset on the snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) includes the metadata, sample weight, specimen weight, shell width and condition, sex and the right claw height of the specimens measured. This dataset covers the periods of 1984-2003 and 2005 to present. In order to protect the confidentiality of the sources, some informations (such as those concerning the vessel) have been excluded and others (such as the date of capture) have been simplified. Entries where there was only one vessel in a fishing area for a given year were also excluded. Further information including the fishing areas coordinates can be found by clicking on the «Atlantic and Arctic commercial fisheries» and «Fishing areas» links below.

A goal of the Government of Canada’s Coastal Environmental Baseline Program (CEBP) is to amalgamate historic environmental data from high vessel traffic areas. An extensive DFO biological sampling program was conducted from 1980 to 1981 on Sturgeon and Roberts banks located on the outer Fraser River estuary, BC, Canada. This report collates and simplifies three data sets: water quality and nearshore fish catch previously published as DFO Data Report 340 (Conlin et al.1982), and un- published weight-length (W-L) data for two locations on Sturgeon Bank (Iona and Steveston) and near Westshore Terminals (Coal Port) on Roberts Bank. W-L data were reconstructed from archived computer printouts using Optical Character Recognition methods. Analyses of water quality data indicate that the two banks provided different fish habitats with Sturgeon Bank having a greater freshwater influence. Although Iona area water quality was exposed to sewage outfall from a nearby sewage treatment plant, it appears that fish communities were not different from the other Sturgeon Bank area (Steveston). The fish communities were found to be different between the two banks with Roberts Bank having greater overall abundance and diversity. Interestingly, of the seven fish species used for condition factor analyses, five were found to have lower Relative Condition Factors in the Roberts Bank sampling area.

This dataset contains observations of species occurrences from seafloor imagery collected by the remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) during the 2012 Expedition to Cobb Seamount. The ROV operated by Fisheries and Oceans Canada was a customized Deep Ocean Engineering Phantom HD2+2 which collected photographic images from 12 transects ranging from 35 m to 211 m in depth.

The National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) is Canada's public inventory of pollutant releases (to air, water and land), disposals and transfers for recycling. The files below contain a map of Canada showing the locations of all facilities that reported to the NPRI in the most recent reporting year. The map is available in both ESRI REST (to use with ARC GIS) and WMS (open source) formats. For more information about the individual reporting facilities, datasets are available in either CSV or XLS formats. Please consult the following resources to enhance your analysis: - Guide on using and Interpreting NPRI Data: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/national-pollutant-release-inventory/using-interpreting-data.html - Access additional data from the NPRI, including datasets and mapping products: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/national-pollutant-release-inventory/tools-resources-data/exploredata.html

PURPOSE: From August 1st to September 11th, 2014, Fisheries and Oceans Canada conducted a baseline survey of marine fishes and their habitats in the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf as part of the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment (BREA) called the Beaufort Sea Marine Fishes Project (BSMFP). Sampling was conducted from the F/V Frosti at 54 stations along 14 transects. Standardized sampling was conducted at pre-determined depth stations (20-1500 m) using benthic trawling nets. The BSMFP is the first research project to use large research trawls to assess the biodiversity and abundance of offshore marine fishes in this area. In total, 42 species of fish were caught. This report contains information on fishing net deployments, catch per unit effort (CPUE), and basic biological data for all fishes caught. DESCRIPTION: Basic biological data for all fish caught during the 2014 BSMFP expedition. Includes identification, weight, length (total, fork, and, standard), liver weight, gonad weight, sex and maturity level. PARAMETERS COLLECTED: family species weight total length fork length standard length liver weight gonad weight sex maturity SAMPLING METHODS: Various trawl types.