The Planning for an Environmental Response (PIER) initiative falls under the umbrella of the Government of Canada's Oceans Protection Plan (OPP), whose goal is preserving marine ecosystems vulnerable to increased transportation and the development of the marine industry (https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/backgrounders/2016/11/07/canadas-oceans-protection-plan-preserving-and-restoring-canadas). The PIER was established in response to recommendations made in a 2013 report "A review of Canada's ship-source spill preparedness and response regime " by the Tanker Safety Expert Panel (https://tc.canada.ca/en/marine-transportation/marine-safety/tanker-safety-expert-panel). One of the recommendations calls on Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to work with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to collect and compile information on sensitive species and environments for each Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) response area and make it publicly available.The PIERs’ main mandate is to acquire and update biological sensitivity data under its jurisdiction for preparation and response purposes in the event of an oil spill. With DFO-Science, PIER supports ECCC's National Environmental Emergencies Centre (NEEC) and the CCG in their preparations and responses through the sharing of data on biological sensitivities, the development of response tools and expert advice.In this vein, DFO published an analysis in 2018 that aimed to identify the most vulnerable components of the St. Lawrence in order to prioritize them during data collection if gaps were identified (Desjardins et al. 2018). This exercise highlighted the vulnerability of several biological components and important data gaps, particularly in coastal areas. As a result of this finding, the Quebec region PIEI team embarked on a collaborative project with the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR) to map eelgrass beds, tidal marshes and macroalgal beds. In consultation with other DFO-Science data producers, this team has also created datasets adapted for response purposes, notably regarding bivalves and marine mammals. These layers may be used for oil spill preparedness and response by DFO-Quebec Region's Environmental Incident Coordinator, NEEC and CCG. Several of them, deemed relevant in the first 72 hours following a spill, have been transmitted to the NEEC.

This dataset consists of information from reports received by the Spills Action Centre (SAC). They are generated and completed by SAC following the initial report of a spill. The data includes: * the reference number assigned to the spill * the municipality in which the spill occurred * what was impacted (e.g. land, water, air, or combination) * the substance being discharged (e.g. oil, gases, chemical, etc.) * whether the environmental impact is confirmed, possible, or not anticipated, and * the source/sector of the spill. The data reflects the information as reflected in the report, following the incident. All spills reported to SAC are recorded in the database, regardless of whether or not the Ministry provides field response. [Get more information on the Spills Action Centre](https://ontario.ca/environment-and-energy /report-spill). *[SAC]: Spills Action Centre *[etc.]: et cetera *[e.g.]: for example

The main objective of this sampling program was to assess the effects of the spill on the toxicity of surface water collected during the spill by comparing them with the results of water collected prior to the discharge.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

A literature review, focusing on oil sand products (e.g., diluted bitumen), diluents, spill-treating agents, and crude oil toxicology and ecological studies, relevant to the northeast Pacific was compiled as part of the Government of Canada’s World Class Tanker Safety program. Of the 763 references identified, 14 involved diluted bitumen and other heavy crude oils, indicating the need for further research of these products in the marine environment. Diluent research suggests relatively fast evaporation and dispersion times for this component, however high toxicities may pose a threat to marine biota. Historical studies indicate older dispersant formulations had potential ecological implications, therefore newer formulations, which have not been studied in detail, require full assessment. Consistent utilization of toxicology standards remains elusive, hindering species sensitivity analyses. Exxon Valdez literature demonstrates highly variable impacts from a single oil type and the need for baseline data, recovery status, and suitable ecological end-point determination.

This tabular data contains environmental discharges (spills) in Saskatchewan with limited information outlining best known location, confirmed substance and quantity. This data is limited to events that occurred before January 1, 2015. Information is not always complete, please contact the Ministry of Environment for further details.The Ministry of Environment's Environmental Protection Branch (EPB) is responsible for responding to incidents where a substance has been discharged into the environment. Under The Environmental Management and Protection Act 2010 (EMPA, 2010), “discharge” means a discharge, drainage, deposit, release or emission into the environment. These records include locations and details of discharge incidents in the Province of Saskatchewan and are currently limited to incidents that were reported to the ministry prior to January 2015.  The Discharge Date is when the Ministry created the record. This is not necessarily the date of the discharge event. We will continue to improve the quality of the information in the table.  As it is validated it will move to the map format, consequently you may notice changes from the table to map format.  Information related to discharges after Janurary 2015 to present are currently found at: https://geohub.saskatchewan.ca/datasets/saskatchewan::discharge-cases-spills/about For further information, please contact the Ministry of Environment Inquiry Centre (Toll Free): 800-567-4224, email: centre.inquiry@gov.sk.ca or visit: Hazardous Spills Reporting.

This map data displays environmental discharges (spills) in Saskatchewan with location, confirmed substance and quantity. This data is limited to events that occurred between January 1, 2015 to present.The Ministry of Environment is responsible for responding to incidents where a substance of potential concern has been discharged into the environment. The Environmental Management and Protection Act, 2010 defines this as a discharge, drainage, deposit, release or emission into the environment.We are currently improving how this information is displayed. This map provides information on more recent discharges that were reported to the ministry. For older Spills, please go to our new GeoHub page: Discharge Cases (Spills) historic incidents”Please note: information may take up to 30 days to be updated and is subject to change at any time.For further information, please contact the Ministry of Environment Inquiry Centre (Toll Free): 800-567-4224, email: centre.inquiry@gov.sk.ca or visit: Hazardous Spills Reporting.

The Shore Unit Classifications Polygons depict the most current areas of Shorezone mapping for the Province of British Columbia. Shorezone is an aerial imaging, habitat classification, and mapping system used to inventory alongshore and across-shore geomorphological and biological attributes of the coast. Habitat attributes are interpreted from oblique aerial imagery acquired during the lowest tides of the year. The mapping project was first developed as an oil spill response tool for British Columbia, and now ShoreZone extends from Oregon to Alaska and has many other uses including ecological studies, marine conservation planning, coastal flooding and vulnerability assessments, and community education.

This dataset was designed for Environment and Climate Change Canada's (ECCC) National Environmental Emergencies Center (NEEC) for oil spill preparedness and response. The polygons from this layer come from the coastal ecosystems geodatabase as part of the Mapping of coastal ecosystems of the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence project. This layer represents semi-vegetated (25-75%) and vegetated (75-100%) zones of which marsh vegetation is the dominant. The study area includes all of the estuarine and maritime coasts of Quebec, with the exception of certain sectors, including most of the Lower North Shore and Anticosti Island, with the exception of villages of Kegaska, la Romaine, Chevery, Blanc-Sablon and Port-Menier. Some islands off the estuary and gulf coasts are part of the region covered, such as Île d'Orléans, Isle-aux-Coudres, Île Verte and Île Bonaventure.The mapping of coastal ecosystems was carried out jointly by the Laboratory for Dynamics and Integrated Coastal Zone Management (LDGIZC) of the University of Quebec at Rimouski as part of the Coastal Resilience Project (https: //ldgizc.uqar.ca/Web/projets/projet-resilience-cotiere) funded by the MELCC; and by the Fisheries and Oceans Canada team, as part of its Integrated marine response planning (IMRP) component of the Oceans Protection Plan (OPP), with the objective of updating the Marine Oil Spill Preparedness and Response Regime of Canada. The master geodatabase of coastal ecosystems is hosted and distributed by UQAR on their SIGEC-Web mapping platform: https://ldgizc.uqar.ca/Web/sigecwebThe characterization of marshes was mainly carried out using photo-interpretation of RVBI aerial photos acquired by DFO (2015-2020) and oblique photos taken by helicopter acquired by UQAR in 2017. This dataset also includes the information from validation stations visited by UQAR (2018-2020), used to validate and refine the photo-interpretation.

This dataset is part of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Shoreline Classification and Pre-Spill database. Shoreline classification data has been developed for use by the Environmental Emergencies Program of Environment and Climate Change Canada for environmental protection purposes. Marine and freshwater shorelines are classified according to the character (substrate and form) of the upper intertidal (foreshore) or upper swash zone (Sergy, 2008). This is the area where oil from a spill usually becomes stranded and where treatment or cleanup activities take place. The basic parameter that defines the shoreline type is the material that is present in the intertidal zone. The presence or absence of sediments is a key factor in determining whether oil is stranded on the surface of a substrate or can penetrate and/or be buried. This dataset contains thousands of linear shoreline segments ranging in length from 200 m and 2 km long. The entities represent the location of the segments and their geomorphological description. There exist further fields in the attribute table for this dataset. We are currently working on standardizing our shoreline segmentation datasets and the updated data will soon be uploaded to the catalog. Sergy, G. (2008). The Shoreline Classification Scheme for SCAT and Oil Spill Response in Canada. Proceedings of the 31stArctic and Marine Oil Spill Program Technical Seminar.Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON, Pp. 811-819.

The Coastal Oceanography and Ecosystem Research section (DFO Science) reviewed the presence of Cod in the Population Ecology Division (DFO Science) Ecosystem Survey trawls to describe the likelihood of presence. The survey consists of a stratified random design using a bottom trawl. This layer was created for consideration in oil spill response planning.A version of this dataset was created for the National Environmental Emergency Center (NEEC) following their data model and is available for download in the Resources section.Cite this data as: Lazin, G., Hamer, A.,Corrigan, S., Bower, B., and Harvey, C. Data of: Likelihood of presence of Atlantic Cod in Area Response Planning pilot areas. Published: June 2018. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. Andrews, N.B. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/af2bf6c0-481d-4445-bbc6-7a785d2a9aa9