The Great Lakes Fish Biodiversity Science Database is a compilation of fish community and habitat data from DFO Science surveys, primarily related to freshwater fishes of conservation concern in the Great Lakes basin. Data include: sampling site location, date, fish species and counts, and associated habitat information. Project-specific details including purpose/objectives and study methodology are often reported in the DFO Canadian data report of fisheries and aquatic sciences series.

This file contains a generalized representation of watersheds developed from the 1:50,000 BC Watershed Atlas with each region coded for occurrence of freshwater fish species (including anadromous salmon in their freshwater stages). The initial fish species codes for presence/absence in each watershed were derived from an GIS overlay of fish species occurrences within broadly defined fish regions for BC. This overlay of fish ranges describes the occurrences of fish species in 30 regions throughout the province. These broad species ranges were derived from McPhail and Carveth's 'Key to Freshwater Fish of BC' and refined further based on the most current expert opinion. Coding for watershed polygons based on this expert opinion was originally: 0= out of species range; 4 = core range; 5= introduced range; 6= peripheral range; 9= estuarine polygons only. A further refinement of watershed fish species coding was developed from actual observations of fish species in the lakes and rivers of British Columbia. This data comes from a number of fish inventory sources. Watersheds with known records of occurrence for each fish species were consequently recoded as such: 4, 5, 6, 9 now equal '1' if a museum record, and, 4, 5, 6, 9 now equal '2' for a less reliable record, and, 0 now equals '8'. for an out-of range record

Basic biological data for all fish caught during the 2012 BSMFP expedition. Includes identification, weight, length (total, fork, and, standard), liver weight, gonad weight, sex and maturity level.

The project (Quoddy Region Pelagics Telemetry) will support the assessment of the effects of aquaculture on the distribution and abundance of pelagic fishes (salmon, mackerel, herring) and large predators (shark, marine mammals) in Passamaquoddy Bay and the Bay of Fundy, an area of intense finfish culture. An acoustic receivers network is placed yearly (from April to December) across various passageways, locations of project-specific interest, and at aquaculture sites in the region. Tagged pelagic species will be tracked through the network to provide information on migration routes, movement speed, survival rates and suspected predators, and determine interaction and residence at aquaculture sites. The network was utilized for monitoring the passage of: hatchery-reared wild salmon (n=340) released in the Magaguadavic River in 2018, 2019 and 2021, wild alewives (n=30) from the St. Croix River in 2021, and farmed Atlantic salmon released in the wild (n=99) in 2021. The receiver network has more recently supported adjacent projects on the use of the region by white shark and porbeagle as well as the residence of mackerel, herring, and sculpin at farm sites. The receivers additionally support other researchers with detection of striped bass, Inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon, sturgeon, and many other species. Placement of the network will continue into 2025 inclusive with the longer-term goal to eventually deploy an array covering the entrance to the Bay of Fundy.Cite this data as: Trudel, M., Wilson, B., Black, M. 2023. Assessing bay-scale impacts of aquaculture operations on the distribution and abundance of pelagic fishes and large predators. Accessed via the Ocean Tracking Network OBIS IPT in January 2025 (version 3.1). https://doi.org/10.14286/xfa6sr

List of freshwater fish species recorded from survey data throughout Nova Scotia.

PURPOSE:From August 1st to September 11th, 2014, Fisheries and Oceans Canada conducted a baseline survey of marine fishes and their habitats in the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf as part of the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment (BREA) called the Beaufort Sea Marine Fishes Project (BSMFP). Sampling was conducted from the F/V Frosti at 54 stations along 14 transects. Standardized sampling was conducted at pre-determined depth stations (20-1500 m) using benthic trawling nets. The BSMFP is the first research project to use large research trawls to assess the biodiversity and abundance of offshore marine fishes in this area. In total, 42 species of fish were caught. This report contains information on fishing net deployments, catch per unit effort (CPUE), and basic biological data for all fishes caught.DESCRIPTION:Basic biological data for all fish caught during the 2014 BSMFP expedition. Includes identification, weight, length (total, fork, and, standard), liver weight, gonad weight, sex and maturity level. PARAMETERS COLLECTED:familyspeciesweighttotal lengthfork lengthstandard lengthliver weightgonad weightsexmaturitySAMPLING METHODS:Various trawl types.

The Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment-Marine Fishes Project (2012-2014) and Canadian Beaufort Sea-Marine Ecosystem Assessment (CBS-MEA, 2017-present) conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada provide offshore surveys of marine fishes and ecosystems on the Canadian Beaufort Shelf and slope in August and early September. The projects focus on integrating oceanography, food web linkages, physical-biological couplings and spatial and inter-annual variability, within the context of ongoing climate-driven change including enhanced Ocean Acidification. Sampling was conducted from the F/V Frosti at stations along transects spanning 20-1000 m. Zooplankton was collected using a bongo or multi-net system in conjunction with oceanographic and biogeochemical sampling.

A goal of the Government of Canada’s Coastal Environmental Baseline Program (CEBP) is to amalgamate historic environmental data from high vessel traffic areas. An extensive DFO biological sampling program was conducted from 1980 to 1981 on Sturgeon and Roberts banks located on the outer Fraser River estuary, BC, Canada. This report collates and simplifies three data sets: water quality and nearshore fish catch previously published as DFO Data Report 340 (Conlin et al.1982), and un- published weight-length (W-L) data for two locations on Sturgeon Bank (Iona and Steveston) and near Westshore Terminals (Coal Port) on Roberts Bank. W-L data were reconstructed from archived computer printouts using Optical Character Recognition methods. Analyses of water quality data indicate that the two banks provided different fish habitats with Sturgeon Bank having a greater freshwater influence. Although Iona area water quality was exposed to sewage outfall from a nearby sewage treatment plant, it appears that fish communities were not different from the other Sturgeon Bank area (Steveston). The fish communities were found to be different between the two banks with Roberts Bank having greater overall abundance and diversity. Interestingly, of the seven fish species used for condition factor analyses, five were found to have lower Relative Condition Factors in the Roberts Bank sampling area.

PURPOSE:From August 2nd to September 9th, 2013, Fisheries and Oceans Canada conducted a baseline survey of marine fishes and their habitats in the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf as part of the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment (BREA) called the Beaufort Sea Marine Fishes Project (BSMFP). Sampling was conducted from the F/V Frosti at 53 stations along 8 transects. Standardized sampling was conducted using benthic trawling nets. The BSMFP is the first research project to use a large research trawls to assess the biodiversity and abundance of offshore marine fishes in this area. In total, 48 species of fish were caught, one of which was a new occurrence in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, Lycodes lavalaei. DESCRIPTION:Basic biological data for all fish caught during the 2013 BSMFP expedition. Includes identification, weight, length (total, fork, and, standard), liver weight, gonad weight, sex and maturity level. PARAMETERS COLLECTED:familyspeciesweighttotal lengthfork lengthstandard lengthliver weightgonad weightsexmaturitySAMPLING METHODS:Various trawl types.

Description:The Regional Freshwater Index Layers dataset is composed of five single-band raster layers in GeoTIFF format. Each layer corresponds to a marine region, which generally coincide with the following layers from the Species Distribution Modelling Boundaries dataset: Nearshore_HG, Nearshore_NCC, Nearshore_QCS, Nearshore_WCVI, and Shelf_SalishSea. The main purpose of the dataset is to supplement existing layers that are used for species distribution modelling in the Pacific nearshore marine environment. Each regional freshwater index layer has the same spatial resolution and extent as other predictor layers for the corresponding region. While salinity layers exist from oceanographic models, they may not capture local difference from smaller scale rivers and streams entering the marine environment. Therefore, these layers are meant to complement salinity layers and are not suitable as a replacement for salinity data in species modelling.Methods:The cell values represent an estimate of freshwater influence on a 0-1 scale, where a higher value represents a greater level of freshwater influence. Details on how these values are determined is described in the supplemental information section of the metadata. The main data source for these derived products is the B.C. Freshwater Atlas, including the stream network and river polygons layers.Uncertainties:The values in the rasters are not a measure of salinity. The units are an index representing the level of freshwater influence weighted by the stream order and rescaled across regions on a 0-1 scale where only the region with the greatest value has a range of values 0-1 and the other regions are scaled relatively. This is done to ensure that values in one region can be compared to values in another region. As a result, some regions have very small values because the Salish Sea with the Fraser River is dominant, even after applying a rescale factor to the data.