The layer provides information on suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations by area. There is a natural interaction phenomenon between hydrocarbons and SPM, that creates hydrocarbon-SPM aggregates. The SPM in the water column, hence has an effect on hydrocarbon capacity to sink to the bottom in aggregate form (Gong et collab., 2014 ; Fitzpatrick et collab., 2015, cited in Centre d'expertise en analyse environnementale du Québec, 2015). Additional InformationThe suspended particulate matter data for this layer are derived from multiple sources given the need to cover the St. Lawrence portion from Montreal to Anticosti. The layer has been cut into 6 different zones. Denis Lefaivre, a researcher at Maurice-Lamontagne Institute, has provided the coordinates of the points allowing the delimitation of areas. The values in each zone are derived from different studies carried out at different times. The references are cited below for each of the polygons from West to East, as well as for the summary:1- Department of Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Change and Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2016. Recommendations for Suspended Matter Management (ESM) during dredging activities. Quebec. 64 pages and appendices. http://planstlaurent.qc.ca/fileadmin/publications/diverses/Registre_de_dragage/Recommandations_dragage.pdf2- D'Anglejan, B. 1990. Recent Sediments and Sediment Transport Process in the St. Lawrence Estuary. In Oceanography of a Large-Scale Estuarine System: The St. Lawrence, edited by M. I. El-Sabh and N. Silverberg. New York: Springer-Verlag, 109-153.3- Silverberg, N., and B. Sundby. 1979. Observations in the maximum turbidity of the St. Lawrence estuary. Can. J. Earth Sci. 16: 939-950.4- Michel Lebeuf, 2016.Unpublished personal data.Collected between 2015-2016 for research purposes.5- Sundby, B. 1974. Distribution and Transport of Suspended Particulate Matter in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences11 (11): 1517-1533.6- Gong, Y., X. Zhao, Z. Cai, S. E. O'Reilly, X. Hao and D. Zhao. 2014. A review of oil, dispersedoil and sediment interactions in the aquatic environment: Influence on the fate, transportand remediation of oil spills. Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 79: 1-2, p.16-33. 7- Fitzpatrick, F.A., M.C., Boufadel, R., Johnson, K., Lee, T.P., Graan, A.C., Bejarano, Z.,Zhu, D., Waterman, D.M., Capone, E., Hayter, S.K., Hamilton, T., Deffer, M.H.,Garcia, et J.S., Hassan. 2015. Oil-particle interactions and submergence from crudeoil spills in marine and freshwater environments – Review of the science and futurescience needs. U.S. Geological Survey Open-file report 2015-2016, 33 p.8- Centre d'expertise en analyse environnementale du Québec,2015.Hydrocarbures pétroliers : caractéristiques, devenir et criminalistique environnementale –Études GENV222 et GENV23, Évaluation environnementale stratégique globale sur leshydrocarbures. Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contreles changements climatiques, 41 p. et annexes.9- CSL – Centre Saint-Laurent, 1997. Le Saint-Laurent : dynamique et contamination des sédiments, Montréal, Environnement Canada – Région du Québec, Conservation de l’environnement, 127 p. (coll. BILAN Saint-Laurent). [Rapport thématique sur l’état du Saint-Laurent].

The Environmental Studies Research Fund (ESRF) Regions are legally described in Part I and Part II of the Schedule in the Environmental Studies Research Fund Regions Regulations in the Canada Petroleum Resources Act. This data collection is for illustrative purposes only and includes:• 1 dataset illustrating ESRF prescribed regions 1 to 31 as they are described in the ESRF Regions Regulations.• 1 dataset illustrating the areas where levies are no longer applied to ESRF prescribed regions. These areas include lands that are described in the ESRF Regions Regulations but have since been devolved to the Government of Yukon or the Government of Northwest Territories as part of the 2003 Yukon Devolution and 2014 Northwest Territories Devolution, respectively. Once the Yukon Act and Northwest Territories Act came into effect, lands subject to devolution were no longer considered frontier lands or Canada lands, and therefore no longer subject to ESRF levies under the Canada Petroleum Resources Act. The geospatial extents used in this dataset represent those identified in the Devolution Agreements. Future updates to Part II, section 3 of the Schedule in the ESRF Regions Regulations will reflect the Yukon and Northwest Territories Devolutions.• 3 maps (National, North, South).• 1 table compiling the historical levies for each ESRF prescribed region.Context:The Environmental Studies Research Fund (ESRF) is a research program which sponsors environmental and social studies designed to assist in the decision-making process related to oil and gas exploration and development on Canada's frontier lands. The ESRF is directed by a 12-member Management Board which includes representation from the federal government, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Energy Regulator (CNSOER), the oil and gas industry, and the public. The ESRF is administered by a secretariat which resides in the Offshore Management Division in Natural Resources Canada.Since 1987, the ESRF has received its legislative mandate through the Canada Petroleum Resources Act. The ESRF regions are described in the Environmental Studies Research Fund Regions Regulations. As well, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Atlantic Accord Implementation Act and the Canada–Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation and Offshore Renewable Energy Management Act provide legislative direction in the southern ESRF regions.Funding for ESRF is collected annually through levies paid by lease-holding oil and gas companies active in a specific ESRF region. In accordance with the legislation, levies are recommended by the Management Board to the Ministers of Natural Resources and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs for approval. Levies in the southern regions in areas governed by an offshore Accord are subject to final approval by the respective offshore regulator (i.e., the C-NLOPB, or the CNSOER). Levies are calculated by multiplying the levy rate of a region by the number of hectares of land under lease.The ESRF has sponsored studies on biodiversity; environmental effects and monitoring; social and economic issues; ice, icebergs, and ice detection; oil spill research and countermeasures; sea bottom ice scour; sediment transport; Indigenous Knowledge; and waves.

The locations of wells that have been drilled for oil production, gas or salt resources or for underground storage of hydrocarbons. This data can be used for land use and resource management, emergency management, as well as compliance and enforcement in the petroleum industry. The Data is collected on an on-going basis and maintained in the Ontario Petroleum Data System (OPDS). *[OPDS]: Ontario Petroleum Data System

The dataset contains the digital boundaries for significant discovery licences, production licences, drilled wells, major pipelines and the jurisdictional boundary of the area administered by the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB), as well as the inactive Georges Bank permits formerly administered by the Canada Oil and Gas Lands Administration (COGLA). All production facilities have been removed and active projects were fully abandoned and decommissioned by November 2020. As of January 2022 there are no active exploration licences.A significant discovery licence (SDL) may be issued for lands within a declared significant discovery area under the Accord Acts. The term of a significant discovery licence is indefinite and was designed to maintain an explorer's rights during the period between first discovery and eventual production. Significant discovery licence interest representatives in 2021 include BP Canada Energy Company, ExxonMobil Canada Ltd., ExxonMobil Canada Properties, Ovintiv Canada ULC, and Shell Canada Limited. Most of the SDLs predate the CNSOEB; they were issued at various times from 1980 to 1986 by COGLA before the Offshore Board existed. On January 5, 1990, they were all rolled into CNSOEB’s governance. The only exception is SDL 2702 which was issued June 6, 2007.A production licence (PL) gives interest holders the right to produce petroleum in an area which is subject to a declared commercial discovery. In order to be declared a commercial discovery, an operator must demonstrate that the discovery contains reserves that will justify the investment of capital and effort to bring the discovery to production. A production licence has a term of 25 years but may be extended if commercial production is continuing or is likely to recommence.Production licence interest representatives in 2021 include ExxonMobil Canada Ltd. and Ovintiv Canada ULC. The PLs were effective on the following dates:• 2901, 2902: 1991-04-01• 2903, 2904, 2905, 2906: 1999-07-06• 2907: 2003-10-31• 2908: 2004-11-25• 2909, 2910, 2911: 2010-12-31 Inactive Georges Bank permit interest representatives include BP Canada Energy Company and Chevron Canada Ltd.Each production licence, significant discovery licence and inactive Georges Bank permit polygon is a mapped representation of the permit interest abstract. The offshore area is divided into grid areas and permit interest abstracts are defined by this land division. The land division system consists of grid areas, sections, and units – all referenced to the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27). For more information on the Canada lands defined areas (Land Division), See: Canada oil and gas regulations land division (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/C.R.C.%2C_c._1518/page-1.html#h-525569 or https://www.cnsopb.ns.ca/resource-library/land-division-guideline).The area of a PL or SDL can be found in the permit interest abstract for that licence, available for download on the CNSOPB's website (https://www.cnsopb.ns.ca/sites/default/files/resource/interest_summary_table.pdf) . The directory of wells point dataset contains the surface locations for all wells drilled in Offshore Nova Scotia. The file includes well names, locations, spud dates, termination dates, rig table elevations, water depths, well total depth, well type (exploratory, delineation, production, or injector), well result, and current status. Original data for wells drilled prior to 1990 was collected and maintained by the Geological Survey of Canada and COGLA. Data are also available on the Basin database online (https://basin.gdr.nrcan.gc.ca/index_e.php). CNSOPB’s directory of wells was last updated January, 2020.Jurisdictional boundary point and lines datasets define the outer limit of the jurisdiction of the CNSOPB, as described in the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act - Schedule 1 (Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-7.8/page-1.html)), excluding the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) limit as described under Part VI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (https://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf?msclkid=5309c2b9cfc911ecb5bb107f67772ec1). The offshore gas pipeline polyline dataset contains locations of major pipelines in the CNSOPB's jurisdictional area, associated with petroleum production in offshore Nova Scotia. This file is considered to be approximate and is not an official record. Some pipeline coordinates are sourced from CAD documents (DXF), supplied by operators. Some were created using ArcMap, digitized from paper records. As of October 2021, all pipelines within this file have been fully flushed with sea water and abandoned.All shapefiles were transformed into the NAD83 datum using the NTv2 transformation.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Maritime Science Branch has collected grain size data from sediment and water column samples using bottle samples, sediment cores, and sediment grabs as part of numerous research projects not only in the Atlantic provinces, but also worldwide. The data collected by DFO focuses on the fine grained (<1mm) particles as these are both a source of food and means of contaminant transport. Grain size data are used to study the fate and distribution of complimentary chemistries like heavy metals, pesticides, hydrocarbons, aquaculture waste as well as a variety of physical processes such as the resuspension and transport of sediment.

A revised qualitative assessment of the hydrocarbon resource potential is presented for the Hudson Bay sedimentary basin that underlies Hudson Bay and adjacent onshore areas of Ontario, Manitoba, and Nunavut. The Hudson Basin is a large intracratonic sedimentary basin thatpreserves dominantly Ordovician to Devonian aged limestone and evaporite strata. Maximum preserved sediment thickness is about 2.5 km. Source rock is the petroleum system element that has the lowest chance of success; the potential source rock is thin, may be discontinuous, and the thin sedimentarycover may not have been sufficient to achieve the temperatures required to generate and expel oil from a source rock over much of the basin. The highest potential is in the center of the basin, where the hydrocarbon potential is considered amp;lt;'Mediumamp;gt;'. Hydrocarbon potential decreasestowards the edges of the basin due to fewer plays being present, and thinner strata reduce the chance of oil generation and expulsion. Quantitative hydrocarbon assessment considers seven plays. Input parameters for field size and field density (per unit area) are based on analog Michigan, Williston,and Illinois intracratonic sedimentary basins that are about the same age and that had similar depositional settings to Hudson Basin. Basin-wide play and local prospect chances of success were assigned based on local geological conditions in Hudson Bay. Each of the seven plays were analyzed in Roseand Associates PlayRA software, which performs a Monte Carlo simulation using the local chance of success matrix and field size and prospect numbers estimated from analog basins. Hudson sedimentary basin has a mean estimate of 67.3 million recoverable barrels of oil equivalent and a 10% chance ofhaving 202.2 or more million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. The mean chance for the largest expected pool is about 15 million recoverable barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE), and there is only a 10% chance of there being a field larger than 23.2 MMBOE recoverable. The small expected fieldsizes are based on the large analog data set from Michigan, Williston and Illinois basins, and are due to the geological conditions that create the traps. The small size of the largest expected field, the low chance of exploration success, and the small overall resource make it unlikely that there are any economically recoverable hydrocarbons in the Hudson Basin in the foreseeable future. The Southampton Island area of interest includes 93 087 km2 of nearshore waters around Southampton Island and Chesterfield Inlet in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut. Of the total resource estimated for Hudson Bay, 14 million barrels are apportioned to the Southampton Island Area of Interest.

Waterbody types include: * Lake * River * Canal * Reservoir * Kettle lake * Pond * Beaver Pond * Ocean This product requires the use of GIS software. *[GIS]: geographic information system

A feature is a representation of a real world object, such as a lake, stream, dam or rapid. There are three hydrographic feature classes:  points, lines and polys. All may impede or be hazardous to waterflow and/or navigation on a watercourse or waterbody. This data shows natural and manmade point features. Examples include: * waterfalls * rapids * rocks * Sea Lamprey barriers * shipwrecks This product requires the use of GIS software. [Technical Bulletin: Data migrated to new Ontario Hydro Network (OHN) - Hydrographic Feature Data Classes (PDF)](https://geohub.lio.gov.on.ca/datasets/mnrf::ontario-hydro-network-ohn-hydrographic-point/) *[OHN]: Ontario Hydro Network *[GIS]: geographic information system

This dataset documents the epifauna occurrences collected from 2021 to 2024 during the Canadian Beaufort Sea Marine Ecosystem Assessment (CBS-MEA) conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). This scientific program focuses on the integration of oceanography, food web linkages, physical-biological couplings, and spatial and interannual variabilities. The program also aims to expand the baseline coverage of species diversity, abundances, and habitat associations in previously unstudied areas of the Beaufort Sea and Western Canadian Archipelago. The study took place mainly in the Canadian Beaufort Sea and the Amundsen Gulf. Sampling is done along transects at fixed stations in the study area. Catches are collected with a 3 m benthic beam trawl for 10 minutes bottom-contact time at a target speed of 2 knots and with a modified Atlantic Western IIA otter trawl for 20 minutes bottom-contact time at a target speed of 2.9 knots. A total of 32 stations were sampled for epifauna in 2021, 22 in 2022, 23 in 2023 and 22 in 2024, between 22-655 m depth. Epibenthic invertebrates were identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible 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_CBSMEA_epifauna_event_en" file which contains information about missions, stations and deployments, which are presented under a hierarchical activity structure.The "Occurrence_épifaune_CBSMEA_epifauna_en" file that contains the taxonomic occurrences.

The Brier Island/Digby Neck area has been identified as an Ecologically and Biologically Significant Area (EBSA) by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and is one of four marine areas within the Bay of Fundy recognised by Parks Canada as of national significance for marine conservation planning. The area is representative of important outer Bay of Fundy features with significant marine mammal, bird, and benthic diversity including potentially important aggregations of sensitive benthic species such as horse mussel and sponge. Much of the information used for this recognition is now over 40 years old and should be re-validated using standardised georeferenced survey methods. As a first phase, a diver-based survey of the sublittoral habitats and associated species was conducted in August and September of 2017 for the Brier Island area. This report summarises the major sublittoral habitat types, species assemblages, and oceanographic conditions observed at 20 locations including Northwest and Southwest Ledges, Gull Rock, Peter’s Island, and Grand Passage. A total of 962 records were made of 178 taxa, consisting of 43 algae and 135 animals. Comparison with historical records largely confirmed the continued presence of unique habitats and species assemblages for which this area was initially recognised as an EBSA. Differences in species richness observed for cryptic and less known taxonomic groups such as sponges and bryozoans were attributable to changes in survey methods and knowledge. Based on these findings, additional surveys of inshore and offshore Brier Island using more quantitative methods developed for other Bay of Fundy EBSAs would further support regional MPA network planning and provide relative scales of species diversity and habitat coverage for this area.