Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has been conducting surface water trawl surveys since 1992 in the coastal waters of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Alaska and in the high seas of the Gulf of Alaska. These surveys initially focused on determining the migratory patterns (1992-2002) and on the growth and physiology (2003-2016) of juvenile Pacific Salmon. Since 2016, these surveys have been broadened to monitor the whole pelagic ecosystem, retaining a focus on juvenile Pacific Salmon. Data were collected from sites in the inland sea waters of British Columbia and Washington State, USA, that comprise the Strait of Georgia, Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound since 2001 and are ongoing.

This dataset provides projected 30-year, 50-year, and 100-year return levels for harbours in British Columbia by 2050 and 2100 under a low emission scenario SSP126, relative to the mean sea level over 1993-2020. The return levels are a combination of estimated present extreme sea levels and projected mean sea level rise. The present extreme sea levels are derived from hourly coastal sea levels for the period from 1993 to 2020, simulated using a high-resolution Northeast Pacific Ocean Model (NEPOM). The projected mean sea level rise is derived from the regional mean sea level rise data of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report under SSP126, adjusted for the local vertical land motion

This dataset provides projected 30-year, 50-year, and 100-year return levels for harbours in British Columbia by 2050 and 2100 under an intermediate emission scenario SSP245, relative to the mean sea level over 1993-2020. The return levels are a combination of estimated present extreme sea levels and projected mean sea level rise. The present extreme sea levels are derived from hourly coastal sea levels for the period from 1993 to 2020, simulated using a high-resolution Northeast Pacific Ocean Model (NEPOM). The projected mean sea level rise is derived from the regional mean sea level rise data of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report under SSP245, adjusted for the local vertical land motion.

This dataset provides projected 30-year, 50-year, and 100-year return levels for harbours in British Columbia by 2050 and 2100 under a high emission scenario SSP585, relative to the mean sea level over 1993-2020. The return levels are a combination of estimated present extreme sea levels and projected mean sea level rise. The present extreme sea levels are derived from hourly coastal sea levels for the period from 1993 to 2020, simulated using a high-resolution Northeast Pacific Ocean Model (NEPOM). The projected mean sea level rise is derived from the regional mean sea level rise data of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report under SSP585, adjusted for the local vertical land motion.

Canada has the longest coastline in the world, measuring 243,790 kilometers. Many of our waterways along the coastline have to be dredged regularly to keep shipping channels and harbours open and safe for navigation; and this material is sometimes best disposed of at sea. Schedule 5 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) defines an exclusive list of materials and substances suitable for disposal at sea in Canada, which is in accordance with the London Protocol (1996). They are: dredged material, fish waste resulting from industrial fish processing operations, ships or platforms, inert and inorganic geological matter, uncontaminated organic matter of natural origin, and bulky substances. The disposal of any substance into the sea, on the seabed, in the subsoil of the seabed, or onto ice, from a ship, an aircraft, a platform or other structure is not allowed unless a permit is issued by the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Disposal at Sea Program. Incineration at sea, as well as importing or exporting a substance for disposal at sea is also prohibited. More information on Disposal at Sea is available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/disposal-at-sea.html The Active Disposal at Sea Sites in Canadian Waters dataset provides spatial and related information of at-sea disposal sites approved for use in Canada in the last ten years. Any additional use of a disposal site must be conducted in accordance with the terms and conditions of a valid Disposal at Sea permit. The dataset may be of use in relation to Disposal at Sea permit applications. For some Disposal at Sea permit applications the data may be of use in assessing serious harm to fish under the Fisheries Act and assessing interference with navigation under the Navigation Protection Act.

This record contains two-weekly minimum sea ice concentration images of the Canadian Beaufort Sea at 1.1 km resolution. The dataset originated from the Canadian Ice Service (CIS) Digital Archive weekly regional charts for the western Arctic (See “additional credit” for a link to these data), created by synthesis of remotely-sensed, ship and airborne observations (Fequet, 2005). These vector ice charts were gridded at 1.1 km resolution and aggregated into two-week composites by calculating the minimum sea-ice concentration at each grid cell over each two-week interval in each year. Week numbers were defined using the ISO 8601 convention, and sea-ice concentration isrepresented in tenths (with 0/10 corresponding to an ice-free pixel, ranging to 10/10 corresponding to 100% pixel coverage with sea-ice). The result is 12 composite images per year in 1998 through 2020 (23 years), corresponding to https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/ee27e86f-7b18-4e3f-8444-0c5efb6110a4. For further details, see Galley et al., 2022.

PURPOSE:Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) rely on sea ice as habitat throughout their life history and inhabit a broad latitudinal range with diverse sea-ice conditions. Anthropogenic climate warming is triggering poleward species redistributions, highlighting the importance of understanding how species distributions and abundance vary along latitudinal gradients. Using ringed seals as a model species, the purpose was to estimate density via aerial surveys along a latitudinal gradient in the eastern Canadian Arctic to investigate latitudinal trends in the ringed seals response to regional variation in sea-ice conditions. DESCRIPTION:Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) rely on sea ice as habitat throughout their life history and inhabit a broad latitudinal range with diverse sea-ice conditions, making them a model species to study patterns in density along a spatial-environmental gradient. We estimated the density of ringed seals from systematic aerial surveys along a latitudinal gradient in the eastern Canadian Arctic to investigate latitudinal trends in the ringed seals response to regional variation in sea-ice conditions. Ringed seals exhibited similar densities at lower and intermediate latitudes, while higher latitudes displayed an order of magnitude lower ringed seal density. This shift is concurrent with the transition in ice conditions from predominantly first-year ice at lower latitudes to primarily multiyear ice at higher latitudes. These findings indicate that the variation in icescapes across the ringed seal’s vast range influences their density. The shift in sea-ice conditions may also have consequences for biological productivity that supports their diet. Our results highlight a likely non-uniform response of ringed seals to ongoing sea-ice recession across the Arctic.

This dataset provides 30-year, 50-year, and 100 year return levels for small craft harbours in British Columbia, relative to the mean sea level over 1993-2020. The return levels are derived from coastal sea levels for the period from 1993 to 2020, simulated using a high-resolution Northeast Pacific Ocean Model (NEPOM).

Seasonal and annual multi-model ensembles of projected change (also known as anomalies) in sea ice concentration based on an ensemble of twenty-eight Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) global climate models are available for 1900-2100. Sea ice concentration is represented as the percentage (%) of grid cell area. Therefore, projected change in sea ice concentration is with respect to the reference period of 1986-2005 and expressed as a percentage (%). The 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 95th percentiles of the ensembles of sea ice concentration change are available for the historical time period, 1900-2005, and for emission scenarios, RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, for 2006-2100. Twenty-year average changes in sea ice concentration (%) for four time periods (2021-2040; 2041-2060; 2061-2080; 2081-2100), with respect to the reference period of 1986-2005, for RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 are also available in a range of formats. The median projected change across the ensemble of CMIP5 climate models is provided. Note: Projections among climate models can vary because of differences in their underlying representation of earth system processes. Thus, the use of a multi-model ensemble approach has been demonstrated in recent scientific literature to likely provide better projected climate change information.

Description:Seasonal climatologies for salinity of the Northeast Pacific Ocean were computed to cover the period 2001 to 2020. Historibal observations included all available conductivity-temperature_depth (CTD), bottle and profiling floats in the NODC World Ocean Database, Marine Environmental Data Services (MEDS), Institute of Ocean Sciences Water Properties website and the Canadian Integrated Ocean Observing System (CIOOS Pacific).Methods:Interpolation was carried out in up to fifty-two vertical levels from surface to 5000m. Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) was used for spatial interpolation for all years within each season and estimates projected onto a consistent grid. The average of the grid nodes was calculated to obtain the seasonal climatology. DIVA was used again on the final climatology followed by a median filter and a 5-point smoother. Spring months were defined as April to June, summer months were defined as July to September, fall months were defined as October to December, and winter months were defined as January to March. The data available here contain raster layers of seasonal salinity climatology for the Canadian Pacific Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a subset of seasonal climatology of the Northeast Pacific Ocean, with high spatial resolution of 1/300 degree.Data Sources:NODC, MEDS, IOS and CIOOS Pacific Data.Uncertainties:Uncertainties are introduced when quality controlled observational data are spatially interpolated to varying distances from the observation point. Climatological averages are calculated from these interpolated values.