This project was completed by the Salmonids Section in the Newfoundland and Labrador Science Branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The Coastal Environmental Baseline Program has supported efforts in 2018 and 2019 of tagged Atlantic salmon smolts leaving the Bay de L’eau River and Rushoon River region of Placentia Bay. This was part of a larger four year tracking study in this region (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022) trying to improve DFO’s understanding of the residency, survival, and migration routes of Atlantic salmon smolts during the first months at sea within northwest Placentia Bay. As of spring 2023, four years of detection data were being processed with the goal of presenting this work at the next Atlantic salmon CSAS meeting and developing a primary publication. This record contains the locations there smolt were tagged in Placentia Bay, NL.

This project was completed by the Groundfish Section in the Newfoundland and Labrador Science Branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). From 2018 to 2020, 14 year-round, acoustic receivers were deployed in Placentia Bay as a part of the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program to form 4 gates: Bar Haven (2 receivers), Centre Channel (1 receiver), Eastern Channel (6 receivers), and Western Channel (5 receivers). Additionally, 162 transmitters were deployed in Atlantic cod in the 3Ps region (2019-2022). Over the deployment period these receivers recorded a total of 2 094 024 detections from 63 unique transmitters including 45 Cod tagged through the Groundfish acoustic telemetry program. Most cod detected were tagged in Placentia Bay (43 fish) and many were detected at multiple receivers or multiple years (37 fish). Passive data collection for this project may extend up to 2030. This record contains the locations of the acoustic receivers in Placentia Bay, NL.

This project was completed by the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program (Coastal and Freshwater Ecology Section) in the Newfoundland and Labrador Science Branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). From 2018 to 2022 baseline biological and physical data were collected in Placentia Bay using Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) and Cold Ocean Productivity Experiment (COPE) protocols. Complementary data were collected in the bay using moored CTDs. Where possible, sampling was conducted monthly at 4 sites between May and November to capture broad scale spatial and temporal trends. Additionally, data were collected bi-weekly in April and May, and monthly from June to September at one of these sites to capture finer scale temporal trends, such as spring blooms, in collaboration with Dr. C. McKenzie. Phytoplankton were collected using vertical net tows and niskins. Zooplankton were collected using vertical net tows. CTDs were used to collect physical and biogeochemical water column data including temperature, pressure, salinity, depth, chlorophyll-a, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, photosynthetic active radiation (PAR), fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM), and conductivity. Water biogeochemistry data were obtained by collecting water samples with niskins at depths of 5, 10, 20, 30, 40m, and 10m above bottom to measure nutrients, chlorophyll-a, carbonates, and particulate organic carbon and nitrogen (POC/PON). Additionally, eDNA samples were taken at each of the 4 sampling sites. This record contains the geographic locations of the sites, and information on the timing and type of data collected at each site.

This project was completed by the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program (Coastal and Freshwater Ecology Section) in the Newfoundland and Labrador Science Branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). From 2020-2023, there were semi-annual deployments and retrievals of 3 moored CTDs in the bay. From 2020 to November 2021, moored CTDs collected hourly recordings of conductivity, temperature and pressure. From 2021 through 2023, these CTDs collected year-round, hourly, information on temperature, conductivity, pressure, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll-a. Acoustic releases also collected hourly ambient noise (mV) data. This record contains the geographic locations of the sites, and information on the timings and types of data collected at each site.

This project was completed by the Shellfish Section in the Newfoundland and Labrador Science Branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), in collaboration with industry partners. The Coastal Environmental Baseline program supported the Placentia Bay portion of project work for an ongoing industry-DFO collaborative post-season trap survey for Snow Crab that was initiated in 2003 and has occurred each year. This survey is conducted by Snow Crab harvesters accompanied by at-sea observers and takes place in NAFO Divisions 2J3KLNOP4R. Historically the survey focused on commercial fishing grounds but began transitioning to a partly random stratified design in 2017. Since 2018, approximately 50% of survey stations are randomly allocated while 50% remain fixed. At each station, six (for inshore stations) or ten (for offshore stations) commercial traps are set in a fleet. To gather data on non-commercial sized Snow Crab, including females, many fleets also include one small-mesh trap. The coverage of small-mesh traps has been expanding in recent years with the aim of one small-mesh trap for every station in the coming years. Biological sampling is undertaken on at least one commercial trap and the small-mesh trap at each station. The data from this survey is incorporated into the annual stock assessment for Snow Crab in the Newfoundland and Labrador region. This record contains trap locations for Placentia Bay, and information on the types of data collected. More detailed information can be found in Pantin et al. (2022). https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2023/mpo-dfo/fs70-5/Fs70-5-2022-076-eng.pdf

The data in this dataset represent an amalgamation of sea turtle sighting, stranding, and entrapment events, mainly near Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada. This document summarises the detection events data for Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), Loggerhead (Caretta caretta), and Green (Chelonia mydas) Turtles that has been collected from opportunistic and systematic survey sources, plus stranding and entrapment records, in the waters of NL from 1946 to 2023. To a much lesser extent there are also detection records for the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Scotian Shelf, and northeastern U.S. waters. These detection records are mostly derived from opportunistic reports, so there are rarely data for a report that includes measures of the observer effort expended to make the detection, and rarely associated imagery. During DFO aerial surveys there are measures of effort in most cases, enabling the turtle sightings reports to be used in habitat modelling (e.g., Mosnier et al. 2018). Most of the information variables (such as “Date”, “Latitude”, “Longitude”, “Number of Animals”) have been obtained from the detection report. In some cases data for variables such as “Location Reliability”, “ID Reliability”, “Platform”, and “Strand or Entrapment Outcome” were derived from interpretation of the comments associated with the report, if available. For description of the variables in the dataset see the Data Dictionary. References: Mosnier, A., Gosselin, J.-F., Lawson, J., Plourde, S., and Lesage, V. 2018. Predicting seasonal occurrence of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in eastern Canadian waters from turtle and sunfish (Mola mola) sighting data and habitat characteristics. Can. J. Zool. 97: 464-478. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2018-0167

Herring Section shapefile - used for spatial analysis/presentation of data from Herring Stock Assessment Database.

This project was completed by the Pelagics Section in the Newfoundland and Labrador Science Branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). As part of the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program, a historical research gillnet program was reinitiated in Placentia Bay. Four local fishers each set fleets of standardized nets to catch herring for 6 weeks during the spring. The data collected was used to update a time series and provide advice at the herring stock assessment in October 2022.  This program was continued in the 22/23 fiscal year. Data collected from this program included gillnet catch rates, bycatch, temperature and biological (herring) samples; from which biological metrics such as length, weight, sex, maturity and age were measured. This record contains catch data for 2018 to 2021, as well as biological data from 2018.