Historical finds of Adelges abietis

A compendium of reports that provide information about aquatic and terrestrial animals and plants, soils, surface water, groundwater and their accompanying data files and maps

Historical finds of Pristiphora erichsonii

Historical finds of Operophtera brumata

Polygons denoting concentrations of sea pens, small and large gorgonian corals and sponges on the east coast of Canada have been identified through spatial analysis of research vessel survey by-catch data following an approach used by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) in the Regulatory Area (NRA) on Flemish Cap and southeast Grand Banks. Kernel density analysis was used to identify high concentrations and the area occupied by successive catch weight thresholds was used to identify aggregations. These analyses were performed for each of the five biogeographic zones of eastern Canada. The largest sea pen fields were found in the Laurentian Channel as it cuts through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while large gorgonian coral forests were found in the Eastern Arctic and on the northern Labrador continental slope. Large ball-shaped Geodia spp. sponges were located along the continental slopes north of the Grand Banks, while on the Scotian Shelf a unique population of the large barrel-shaped sponge Vazella pourtalesi was identified. The latitude and longitude marking the positions of all tows which form these and other dense aggregations are provided along with the positions of all tows which captured black coral, a non-aggregating taxon which is long-lived and vulnerable to fishing pressures.These polygons identify sea pen fields from the broader distribution of seapens in the region as sampled by Alfredo trawl gear in the Eastern Arctic biogeographic zone. A 0.25 kg minimum threshold for the sea pen catch was identified as the weight that separated the sea pen field habitat from the broader distribution of sea pens with these research vessel tow data and gear type.

A research survey on American lobster (Homarus americanus) and rock crab (Cancer irroratus) has been carried out annually on the Magdalen Islands since 1995 to assess the abundance and structure of populations in this area. The survey is carried out during the first two weeks of September and covers the southern part of the Magdalen Islands, from "Baie de Plaisance" to "Grande-Entrée", extending slightly eastwards between "Havre-aux-Maisons" and "Grande-Entrée". The survey lasts 8 to 15 days, depending of the weather conditions, and covers a maximum of 48 stations. Approximately half of the stations are surveyed in duplicate (two tows per station). The tows always cover 500 meters, with a slightly variable trawl opening (as explained above), averaging around 10 meters.The gear used is a Nephrops trawl, a benthic trawl originally developed for langoustine fishing in Brittany, but slightly modified to target lobster. The trawl is deployed from the CCGS Leim and the harvested organisms are hauled aboard and sorted. Cephalothorax length, sex and shell stage are recorded for all lobsters. This is supplemented by information on reproductive conditions for certain size classes, and dissections of 25 males and 25 females per mission. Rock crabs are also included in the survey and are counted with additional measurements of shell width, sex and shell condition that are recorded on predetermined stations. For other stations individuals data are collected depending on the time available between trawl hauls.The publication contains 4 files; the "Information_stations" file which contains the data of the stations, the "Data_homard_lobster_survey" file which contains the measurements of each lobster, the "Nombre_crabe_crab_number" file which contains the count of rock crabs, the "Mesure_crabe_crab_measurement" file contains the characteristics measured for each crab. Each of the files can be linked by the "date", "st", "tr" columns. The “bat” column notes the boat code, because the gear is not deployed in the same way on each boat.*This record consist of raw data and quality has not been verifiedAssociated species are identified and semi-quantitatively counted directly on the sorting table, and the results are presented in the following publication: https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/99cb7034-f3d5-4da4-a5bc-e81315cfb8eb

The Shorezone Biobanding Polygons are an area representation of the various types of biota (flora and fauna) and their distribution, or lack thereof, found in the shoreunit.

Polygons denoting concentrations of sea pens, small and large gorgonian corals and sponges on the east coast of Canada have been identified through spatial analysis of research vessel survey by-catch data following an approach used by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) in the Regulatory Area (NRA) on Flemish Cap and southeast Grand Banks. Kernel density analysis was used to identify high concentrations and the area occupied by successive catch weight thresholds was used to identify aggregations. These analyses were performed for each of the five biogeographic zones of eastern Canada. The largest sea pen fields were found in the Laurentian Channel as it cuts through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while large gorgonian coral forests were found in the Eastern Arctic and on the northern Labrador continental slope. Large ball-shaped Geodia spp. sponges were located along the continental slopes north of the Grand Banks, while on the Scotian Shelf a unique population of the large barrel-shaped sponge Vazella pourtalesi was identified. The latitude and longitude marking the positions of all tows which form these and other dense aggregations are provided along with the positions of all tows which captured black coral, a non-aggregating taxon which is long-lived and vulnerable to fishing pressures.These polygons identify sponge grounds from the broader distribution of sponges in the region as sampled by Alfredo gear in the Eastern Arctic biogeographic zone. A 70 kg minimum threshold for the sponge catch was identified as the weight that separated the sponge ground habitat from the broader distribution of sponges with these research vessel tow data and gear type.

Polygons denoting concentrations of sea pens, small and large gorgonian corals and sponges on the east coast of Canada have been identified through spatial analysis of research vessel survey by-catch data following an approach used by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) in the Regulatory Area (NRA) on Flemish Cap and southeast Grand Banks. Kernel density analysis was used to identify high concentrations and the area occupied by successive catch weight thresholds was used to identify aggregations. These analyses were performed for each of the five biogeographic zones of eastern Canada. The largest sea pen fields were found in the Laurentian Channel as it cuts through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while large gorgonian coral forests were found in the Eastern Arctic and on the northern Labrador continental slope. Large ball-shaped Geodia spp. sponges were located along the continental slopes north of the Grand Banks, while on the Scotian Shelf a unique population of the large barrel-shaped sponge Vazella pourtalesi was identified. The latitude and longitude marking the positions of all tows which form these and other dense aggregations are provided along with the positions of all tows which captured black coral, a non-aggregating taxon which is long-lived and vulnerable to fishing pressures.These polygons identify sea pen fields from the broader distribution of sea pens in the region as sampled by Western II A trawl gear in the Scotian Shelf biogeographic zone. A 0.1 kg minimum threshold for the sea pen catch was identified as the weight that separated the sea pen field habitat from the broader distribution of sea pens with these research vessel tow data and gear type.

The blue whale (Balaenopterus musculus) is a wide-ranging cetacean that can be found in all oceans, inhabiting coastal and oceanic habitats. In the North Atlantic, little is known about blue whale distribution and genetic structure, and if whether animals found in Icelandic waters, the Azores, or Northwest Africa are part of the same population as those from the Northwest Atlantic. In the Northwest Atlantic, seasonal movements of blue whales and habitat use, including the location of breeding and wintering areas, are poorly understood.The behaviour of remotely-monitored animals can be inferred from a time series of location data. This is because animals tend to demonstrate stochasticity in their movement paths as a result of spatial variation in environmental characteristics, such as topography or prey density (Curio 1976; Gardner et al. 1989; Turchin 1991; Wiens et al. 1993). Predators are expected to decrease travel speed and/or increase turning frequency and turning angle when a suitable resource, e.g., food patch, is encountered (Turchin 1991), otherwise known as area-restricted search (ARS). In contrast, animals in transit or travelling tend to move at faster and more regular speeds, with infrequent and smaller turning angles (Kareiva and Odell 1987; Turchin 1998).Based on satellite telemetry to track the seasonal movements of 24 blue whales from eastern Canada in 2002 and from 2010 to 2015, it was possible to estimate trajectories and locations where ARS behaviour of blue whales was inferred at a 4h time interval.To assess blue whale movements and behavior, a Bayesian switching statespace model (SSSM) was applied to Argos-derived telemetry data (Jonsen et al. 2005; Jonsen et al. 2013). An SSSM essentially estimates animal location at fixed time intervals, movement parameters and behavioral patterns.Two important sources of uncertainty can be measured separately: estimation error resulting from inaccurate observations (Argos location error) and process variability linked to the stochasticity of the movement process (behavior mode estimation) (Jonsen et al. 2003; Patterson et al. 2008).The points visible on land are the result of errors in the Argos geographic position calculation. They have been deliberately left unchanged to assess the performance of the model, which was able to clean up some positions, but not all.Lesage, V., Gavrilchuk, K., Andrews, R.D., and Sears, R. 2016. Wintering areas, fall movements and foraging sites of blue whales satellite-tracked in the Western North Atlantic. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2016/078. v + 38 p.