The Fieldnotes dataset represents anticipated locations of science field research and monitoring to be conducted throughout the year by Fisheries and Oceans Canadas' Pacific Science team and collaborators in the Northeast Pacific and Arctic oceans, and in the coastal and interior waters of British Columbia and Yukon.

Records of marine mammal sightings (N = 5,324) collected by ASOs and submitted to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) between 1979-2024, across three DFO regions: the Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Maritimes. Methods for initial data compilation are provided in the associated technical report "Marine mammal records collected by the at-sea observer (ASO) program in Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Maritimes regions: a summary of challenges and opportunities for future research." Cite this data as: Feyrer, L.J., Colbourne, N., Lawson, J.W., Moors-Murphy, H.B., Ferguson, S. Dataset update to Marine mammal records collected by the At-Sea Observer program in Arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador and Maritimes regions. Published: February 2025. Ocean Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S.

The Eastern Shore Islands was announced as an "Area of Interest" (AOI) in 2018 by the DFO Maritimes region to potentially be considered for a Marine Protected Area under the federal Oceans Act. As part of its mandate for monitoring established and potential conservation areas, DFO Science regularly deploys instruments including conductivity/temperature/depth (CTD) loggers, and other instruments for measuring dissolved oxygen, nutrients, and other chemical ocean properties. This data collection includes temperature and other oceanographic records for the ESI AOI from June 2024 onward. The data are derived from temperature loggers (Hobo Tidbit loggers or similar) and Sea-Bird MicroCATs, but may in future years include current profiles or additional oceanographic data. These data will be used to monitor temperatures in this coastal region to detect any biological shifts associated with temperature and climate fluctuations, and be used to groundtruth oceanographic models.Cite this data as: Jeffery, N., Stanley, R., Pettitt- Wade, H. (2025): Data of: Baseline oceanographic records for the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest.Published: September 2025. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/f0020cec-5671-4908-8fdd-11fc097de99d

This dataset was collected in support of a Competitive Science and Research Fund project (21-CC-05-06 Impacts of coastal acidification and climate change stressors on the Atlantic sea scallop: larval supply, recruitment and adaptive capacity to multiple global change drivers) lead by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The objective of this research is to characterize coastal environmental conditions associated with scallop spawning and larval drift in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick. This dataset includes temperature, conductivity, salinity, sigma-theta, sea pressure, and depth information taken at weekly intervals at the sampling stations. In total, this dataset represents a total of 62 CTD profiles collected across 3 sampling stations over 22 sampling days from June to October 2022. Sampling stations were selected to compare scallop recruitment signals from Chamcook Harbour, a decommissioned scallop aquaculture site in Big Bay (MS-1077) and in the middle of Passamaquoddy Bay. Data were processed in accordance with instrumentation manufacturer guidelines and DFO Ocean Data and Information Section QAQC procedures. Cite this data as: Miller, E., Quinn, B., Azetsu-Scott, K., Childs, D., Gabriel, C-E., Newhook, M. 2025. Impacts of coastal acidification and climate change stressors on the Atlantic sea scallop. Published October 2025. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. Andrews, N.B

DFO’s Oceans and Coastal Management Division (OCMD) in the Maritimes Region has updated its fisheries landings maps for 2010–2014. These maps will be used for decision making in coastal and oceans management, including mitigating human use conflicts, informing environmental emergency response operations and protocols, informing Marine Stewardship Council certification processes, planning marine protected area networks, assessing ecological risks, and monitoring compliance and threats in coral and sponge closures and Marine Protected Areas. Fisheries maps were created to identify important fishing areas using aggregate landed weight (kg) per 2 x 2-minute grid cell for selected species/gear types.This dataset has been filtered to comply with the Government of Canada's privacy policy. Privacy assessments were conducted to identify NAFO unit areas containing data with less than five vessel IDs, license IDs and fisher IDs. If this threshold was not met, catch weight locations were withheld from these unit areas to protect the identity or activity of individual vessels or companies.Maps were created for the following species/gear types: 1. Atlantic Halibut2. Bluefin Tuna3. Bottom Longline Groundfish4. Bottom Trawl Groundfish5. Cod6. Cod, Haddock, Pollock7. Cusk8. Dogfish9. Flatfish10. Gillnet Groundfish11. Greenland Halibut12. Groundfish 13. Groundfish (quarterly composites Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4)14. Hagfish15. Herring16. Large Pelagics17. Mackerel18. Monkfish19. Offshore Clam20. Offshore Lobster21. Grey Zone Lobster22. Other Crab23. Other Tuna24. Pollock25. Porbeagle, Mako and Blue Shark26. Red Hake27. Redfish28. Scallop29. Scallop (quarterly composites Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4)30. Sculpin31. Sea Urchin32. Shrimp33. Silver Hake34. Skate35. Snow Crab36. Squid37. Swordfish38. White Hake39. Wolffish

This layer details Important Areas (IAs) relevant to coral, sponge, and reef-building species in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA). This data was mapped to inform the selection of marine Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA). Experts have indicated that these areas are relevant based upon their high ranking in one or more of three criteria (Uniqueness, Aggregation, and Fitness Consequences). The distribution of IAs within ecoregions is used in the designation of EBSAs.Canada’s Oceans Act provides the legislative framework for an integrated ecosystem approach to management in Canadian oceans, particularly in areas considered ecologically or biologically significant. DFO has developed general guidance for the identification of ecologically or biologically significant areas. The criteria for defining such areas include uniqueness, aggregation, fitness consequences, resilience, and naturalness. This science advisory process identifies proposed EBSAs in Canadian Pacific marine waters, specifically in the Strait of Georgia (SOG), along the west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI, southern shelf ecoregion), and in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA, northern shelf ecoregion).Initial assessment of IAs in PNCIMA was carried out in September 2004 to March 2005 with spatial data collection coordinated by Cathryn Clarke. Subsequent efforts in WCVI and SOG were conducted in 2009, and may have used different scientific advisors, temporal extents, data, and assessment methods. WCVI and SOG IA assessment in some cases revisits data collected for PNCIMA, but should be treated as a separate effort.Other datasets in this series detail IAs for birds, cetaceans, fish, geographic features, invertebrates, and other vertebrates.Though data collection is considered complete, the emergence of significant new data may merit revisiting of IAs on a case by case basis.

This layer details Important Areas (IAs) relevant to key fish species in the West Coast Vancouver Island (WCVI) ecoregion. This data was mapped to inform the selection of marine Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA). Experts have indicated that these areas are relevant based upon their high ranking in one or more of three criteria (Uniqueness, Aggregation, and Fitness Consequences). The distribution of IAs within ecoregions is used in the designation of EBSAs.Canada’s Oceans Act provides the legislative framework for an integrated ecosystem approach to management in Canadian oceans, particularly in areas considered ecologically or biologically significant. DFO has developed general guidance for the identification of ecologically or biologically significant areas. The criteria for defining such areas include uniqueness, aggregation, fitness consequences, resilience, and naturalness. This science advisory process identifies proposed EBSAs in Canadian Pacific marine waters, specifically in the Strait of Georgia (SOG), along the west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI, southern shelf ecoregion), and in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA, northern shelf ecoregion).Initial assessment of IAs in PNCIMA was carried out in September 2004 to March 2005 with spatial data collection coordinated by Cathryn Clarke. Subsequent efforts in WCVI and SOG were conducted in 2009, and may have used different scientific advisors, temporal extents, data, and assessment methods. WCVI and SOG IA assessment in some cases revisits data collected for PNCIMA, but should be treated as a separate effort.Other datasets in this series detail IAs for birds, cetaceans, coral and sponges, geographic features, invertebrates, and other vertebrates.Though data collection is considered complete, the emergence of significant new data may merit revisiting of IAs on a case by case basis.

This dataset provides refined monthly climatological projections for six key ocean variables: surface and bottom temperature, surface and bottom salinity, mixed layer depth, and bottom current speed. The projections are provided for six Maritime Marine Protected Areas: the Gully, the Laurentian Channel, St. Anns Bank, Musquash Estuary, Banc-des-Américains, and Basin Head. These projections are based on downscaled outputs from 22 CMIP6 models under four emissions scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5) for four 20-year periods spanning 2020 to 2099 (2020–2039, 2040–2059, 2060–2079, and 2080–2099).For each model and scenario, 20-year climatological means were computed for each future period. These climatologies were then aggregated to produce ensemble means and ensemble standard deviations for all variables. The released dataset includes only these ensemble summary fields and is provided as gridded data with dimensions longitude × latitude × scenario × time.Cite this data as: Wang., Z. Data of High-resolution climate projection data for Marine Protected Areas in the Maritimes. Published: May 2026. Ocean Ecosystems Science Division, Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth NS. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/fb4b3212-bca3-4192-8401-687faccc534b

This layer details Important Areas (IAs) relevant to important geographic features in the West Coast Vancouver Island (WCVI) ecoregion. This data was mapped to inform the selection of marine Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA). Experts have indicated that these areas are relevant based upon their high ranking in one or more of three criteria (Uniqueness, Aggregation, and Fitness Consequences).Canada’s Oceans Act provides the legislative framework for an integrated ecosystem approach to management in Canadian oceans, particularly in areas considered ecologically or biologically significant. DFO has developed general guidance for the identification of ecologically or biologically significant areas. The criteria for defining such areas include uniqueness, aggregation, fitness consequences, resilience, and naturalness. This science advisory process identifies proposed EBSAs in Canadian Pacific marine waters, specifically in the Strait of Georgia (SOG), along the west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI, southern shelf ecoregion), and in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA, northern shelf ecoregion).Initial assessment of IA's in PNCIMA was carried out in September 2004 to March 2005 with spatial data collection coordinated by Cathryn Clarke. Subsequent efforts in WCVI and SOG were conducted in 2009, and may have used different scientific advisors, temporal extents, data, and assessment methods. WCVI and SOG IA assessment in some cases revisits data collected for PNCIMA, but should be treated as a separate effort.Though data collection is considered complete, the emergence of significant new data may merit revisiting of IA's on a case by case basis.Other datasets in this series detail IAs for birds, cetaceans, fish, other vertebrates, corals and sponges, and other invertebrates.This package also includes project documentation and tech reports relevant to the IA process and its role within the selection of EBSAs.

This layer details Important Areas (IAs) relevant to key invertebrate species (which are not corals or sponges) in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA). This data was mapped to inform the selection of marine Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSA). Experts have indicated that these areas are relevant based upon their high ranking in one or more of three criteria (Uniqueness, Aggregation and Fitness Consequences). The distribution of IAs within ecoregions is used in the designation of EBSAs.Canada’s Oceans Act provides the legislative framework for an integrated ecosystem approach to management in Canadian oceans, particularly in areas considered ecologically or biologically significant. DFO has developed general guidance for the identification of ecologically or biologically significant areas. The criteria for defining such areas include uniqueness, aggregation, fitness consequences, resilience, and naturalness. This science advisory process identifies proposed EBSAs in Canadian Pacific marine waters, specifically in the Strait of Georgia (SOG), along the west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI, southern shelf ecoregion), and in the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area (PNCIMA, northern shelf ecoregion).Initial assessment of IAs in PNCIMA was carried out in September 2004 to March 2005 with spatial data collection coordinated by Cathryn Clarke. Subsequent efforts in WCVI and SOG were conducted in 2009, and may have used different scientific advisors, temporal extents, data, and assessment methods. WCVI and SOG IA assessment in some cases revisits data collected for PNCIMA, but should be treated as a separate effort.Other datasets in this series detail IAs for birds, cetaceans, coral and sponges, fish, geographic features, and other vertebrates.Though data collection is considered complete, the emergence of significant new data may merit revisiting of IAs on a case by case basis.