The Government of Canada continues to strive to be ever more open and transparent. This means a government that is open by default providing better digital capacity and services for Canadians. Under a modernized Fisheries Act, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has made available an online Fisheries Act (FA) Registry that facilitates access to data and information, including geospatial data, about projects as well as regulatory process information. The new online version of the FA Registry is now available to Canadians. The FA Registry is currently accessible through the Common Project Search Portal, a one-stop online location for Canadians to search and browse through DFO authorizations as well as projects and assessments submitted to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and Transport Canada. DFO will be undertaking continuous development of the Fisheries Act Registry. This release is the second step towards implementing the full FA Registry that will provide additional content as well as new features to the FA Registry, increasing transparency and proactive disclosure as well as improving digital capacity and service for Canadians.

Seamounts have been identified as Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) due to their unique oceanography and ecology; they frequently serve as sites for fisheries and as habitat for a number of species of conservation concern. A mix of isolated seamounts and seamount complexes are distributed throughout Canada’s Pacific offshore waters, although only a subset of these are named. We used several pre-existing spatial databases and predictive models to map all named seamounts within Canada’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), all named seamounts fished by Canada in international waters, and any predicted (modelled) unnamed seamounts in the EEZ. These data are intended to inform marine planning initiatives in BC by providing collaborative, peer-reviewed scientific data at scales relevant to a BC coast-wide analysis.