The Oceans Act (1997) commits Canada to maintaining biological diversity and productivity in the marine environment. A key component of this is to identify areas that are considered ecologically or biologically significant. Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Science has developed guidance on the identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) (DFO 2004) and has endorsed the scientific criteria of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for identifying ecologically or biologically significant marine areas as defined in Annex I of Decision IX/20 of its 9th Conference of Parties. These criteria were applied to the Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) Shelves Bioregion in two separate data-driven processes. The first process focused on the area north of the Placentia Bay-Grand Banks (PBGB) Large Ocean Management Area (LOMA) (DFO 2013). The second process focused on the PBGB area (DFO 2019), where EBSAs had previously been identified using a more Delphic approach (Templeman 2007). In both cases, an EBSA Steering Committee, comprised of experts in oceanography, ecosystem structure and function, taxa-specific life histories and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) guided the process by advising or aiding in the identification, collection, processing and analysis of data layers, as well as participating in the final selection of candidate EBSAs (Wells et al. 2017, Ollerhead et al. 2017, Wells et al. 2019). All information was compiled in a GIS and a hierarchical approach was used to review individual data layers and groupings of data layers. Peer review meetings were held for both processes, during which candidate EBSAs were reviewed and the final EBSAs were agreed upon and delineated. In the northern study area, a total of fifteen EBSAs were identified and described; three of these areas are primarily coastal areas; seven are in offshore areas; four EBSAs straddle coastal and offshore areas; and one is a transitory EBSA that follows the southern extent of pack ice. In the PBGB study area, fourteen EBSAs were identified in two different categories: seven based on coastal data and seven based on offshore data. In comparing the new PBGB EBSAs to those identified in 2007, nine of them overlap spatially and are based on similar features; however, there were some variations in the boundaries. Two of the EBSAs that were identified in 2007 were no longer considered EBSAs in 2017, but portions of both of these areas were captured in part by other EBSAs. Five new EBSAs were identified in areas not previously considered. References: DFO, 2004. Identification of Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Ecosystem Status Rep. 2004/006. DFO. 2013. Identification of additional Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) within the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves Bioregion. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2013/048. DFO. 2019. Re-evaluation of the Placentia Bay-Grand Banks Area to Identify Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas . DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2019/040. Ollerhead, L.M.N., Gullage, M., Trip, N., and Wells, N. 2017. Development of Spatially Referenced Data Layers for Use in the Identification and Delineation of Candidate Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas in the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves Bioregion. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2017/036. v + 38 p Templeman, N.D. 2007. Placentia Bay-Grand Banks Large Ocean Management Area Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas. Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2007/052: iii + 15 p. Wells, N.J., Stenson, G.B., Pepin, P., and Koen-Alonso, M. 2017. Identification and Descriptions of Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas in the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelves Bioregion. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2017/013. v + 87 p. Wells, N., K. Tucker, K. Allard, M. Warren, S. Olson, L. Gullage, C. Pretty, V. Sutton-Pande and K. Clarke. 2019. Re-evaluation of the

Mean depth was calculated from the bathymetry surface for each cell using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst Focal Statistics "Mean" parameter. Mean depth represents the average depth value (in meters) within a square 3x3 cell window. The 2x2 meter resolution mean depth GeoTIFF was exported and added as a new map layer to aid in benthic habitat classification. Acoustic imagery was acquired for the VICRNM on two separate missions onboard the NOAA ship, Nancy Foster. The first mission took place from 2/18/04 to 3/5/04. The second mission took place from 2/1/05 to 2/12/05. On both missions, seafloor depths between 14 to 55 m were mapped using a RESON SeaBat 8101 ER (240 kHz) MBES sensor. This pole-mounted system measured water depths across a 150 degree swath consisting of 101 individual 1.5 degree x 1.5 degree beams. The beams to the port and starboard of nadir (i.e., directly underneath the ship) overlapped adjacent survey lines by approximately 10 m. The vessel survey speed was between 5 and 8 kn. In 2004, the ship's location was determined by a Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system, which provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard Continually Operating Reference Station (CORS) at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. Gyro, heave, pitch and roll correctors were acquired using an Ixsea Octans gyrocompass. In 2005, the ship's positioning and orientation were determined by the Applanix POS/MV 320 V4, which is a GPS aided Inertial Motion Unit (IMU) providing measurements of roll, pitch and heading. The POS/MV obtained its positions from two dual frequency Trimble Zephyr GPS antennae. An auxiliary Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard CORS at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. For both years, CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) measurements were taken approximately every 4 hours using a Seabird Electronics SBE-19 to correct for the changing sound velocities in the water column. In 2004, raw data were logged in .xtf (extended triton format) using Triton ISIS software 6.2. In 2005, raw data were logged in .gsf (generic sensor format) using SAIC ISS 2000 software. Data from 2004 were referenced to the WGS84 UTM 20 N horizontal coordinate system, and data from 2005 were referenced to the NAD83 UTM 20 N horizontal coordinate system. Data from both projects were referenced to the Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) vertical tidal coordinate system. The 2004 and 2005 MBES bathymetric data were both corrected for sensor offsets, latency, roll, pitch, yaw, static draft, the changing speed of sound in the water column and the influence of tides in CARIS Hips & Sips 5.3 and 5.4, respectively. The 2004 data was then binned to create a 1 x 1 m raster surface, and the 2005 data was binned to a create 2 x 2 m raster surface. After these final surfaces were created, the datum for the 2004 bathymetric surfaces was transformed from WGS84 to NAD83 using the "Project Raster" function in ArcGIS 9.1. The 2004 surface was transformed so that it would have the same datum as the 2005 surface. The 2004 bathymetric surface was then down sampled from 1 x 1 to 2 x 2 m using the "Resample" function in ArcGIS 9.1. The 2004 surface was resampled so it would have the same spatial resolution as the 2005 surface. Having the same coordinate systems and spatial resolutions, the final 2004 and 2005 bathymetry rasters were then merged using the Raster Calculator function "Merge" in ArcGIS's Spatial Analyst Extension to create a seamless bathymetry surface for the entire VICRNM area south of St. John. For a complete description of the data acquisition and processing parameters, please see the data acquisition and processing reports (DAPRs) for projects: NF-04-06-VI and NF-05-05-VI (Monaco & Rooney, 2004; Battista & Lazar, 2005).

Effective fisheries and habitat management processes require knowledge of the distribution of areas of high ecological or biological significance. On the Scotian Shelf and Slope, a number of benthic ecologically or biologically significant areas consisting of habitat-forming species such as sponges and deep-water corals have been identified. However, knowledge of their spatial distribution is largely based on targeted surveys that are limited in their spatial extent. We used a species distribution modelling approach called random forest (RF) to predict the probability of occurrence and biomass of sponges, sea pens, and large and small gorgonian corals across the entire spatial extent of Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Maritimes Region. We also modelled the rare sponge Vazella pourtalesi, which forms the largest known aggregation of its kind on the Scotian Shelf. We utilized a number of data sources including DFO multispecies trawl catch data and in situ benthic imagery observations. Most models had excellent predictive capacity with cross-validated Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) values ranging from 0.760 to 0.977. Areas of suitable habitat were identified for each taxon and were contrasted against their known distribution and when applicable, the location of closure areas designated for their protection. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were developed to predict the biomass distribution of each taxonomic group and serve as a comparison to the RF models. The RF and GAM models provided comparable results, although GAMs provided superior predictions of biomass along the continental slope for some taxonomic groups. In the absence of data observations, the results of this study could be used to identify the potential distribution of sensitive benthic taxa for use in fisheries and habitat management applications. These results could also be used to refine significant concentrations of these taxa as identified through the kernel density analyses. Cite this data as: Beazley, Lindsay; Kenchington, Ellen; Murillo-Perez, Javier; Lirette, Camille; Guijarro-Sabaniel, Javier; McMillan, Andrew; Knudby, Anders (2019). Species Distribution Modelling of Corals and Sponges in the Maritimes Region for Use in the Identification of Significant Benthic Areas. Published July 2023. Ocean Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/356e92f3-5bf3-4810-98b1-3e10cd7742aa

Standard deviation of depth was calculated from the bathymetry surface for each cell using the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst Focal Statistics "STD" parameter. Standard deviation of depth represents the dispersion of depth values (in meters) around the mean depth within a square 3x3 cell window. The 2x2 meter resolution standard deviation of depth GeoTIFF was exported and added as a new map layer to aid in benthic habitat classification. Acoustic imagery was acquired for the VICRNM on two separate missions onboard the NOAA ship, Nancy Foster. The first mission took place from 2/18/04 to 3/5/04. The second mission took place from 2/1/05 to 2/12/05. On both missions, seafloor depths between 14 to 55 m were mapped using a RESON SeaBat 8101 ER (240 kHz) MBES sensor. This pole-mounted system measured water depths across a 150 degree swath consisting of 101 individual 1.5 degree x 1.5 degree beams. The beams to the port and starboard of nadir (i.e., directly underneath the ship) overlapped adjacent survey lines by approximately 10 m. The vessel survey speed was between 5 and 8 kn. In 2004, the ship's location was determined by a Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system, which provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard Continually Operating Reference Station (CORS) at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. Gyro, heave, pitch and roll correctors were acquired using an Ixsea Octans gyrocompass. In 2005, the ship's positioning and orientation were determined by the Applanix POS/MV 320 V4, which is a GPS aided Inertial Motion Unit (IMU) providing measurements of roll, pitch and heading. The POS/MV obtained its positions from two dual frequency Trimble Zephyr GPS antennae. An auxiliary Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard CORS at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. For both years, CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) measurements were taken approximately every 4 hours using a Seabird Electronics SBE-19 to correct for the changing sound velocities in the water column. In 2004, raw data were logged in .xtf (extended triton format) using Triton ISIS software 6.2. In 2005, raw data were logged in .gsf (generic sensor format) using SAIC ISS 2000 software. Data from 2004 were referenced to the WGS84 UTM 20 N horizontal coordinate system, and data from 2005 were referenced to the NAD83 UTM 20 N horizontal coordinate system. Data from both projects were referenced to the Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) vertical tidal coordinate system. The 2004 and 2005 MBES bathymetric data were both corrected for sensor offsets, latency, roll, pitch, yaw, static draft, the changing speed of sound in the water column and the influence of tides in CARIS Hips & Sips 5.3 and 5.4, respectively. The 2004 data was then binned to create a 1 x 1 m raster surface, and the 2005 data was binned to a create 2 x 2 m raster surface. After these final surfaces were created, the datum for the 2004 bathymetric surfaces was transformed from WGS84 to NAD83 using the "Project Raster" function in ArcGIS 9.1. The 2004 surface was transformed so that it would have the same datum as the 2005 surface. The 2004 bathymetric surface was then down sampled from 1 x 1 to 2 x 2 m using the "Resample" function in ArcGIS 9.1. The 2004 surface was resampled so it would have the same spatial resolution as the 2005 surface. Having the same coordinate systems and spatial resolutions, the final 2004 and 2005 bathymetry rasters were then merged using the Raster Calculator function "Merge" in ArcGIS's Spatial Analyst Extension to create a seamless bathymetry surface for the entire VICRNM area south of St. John. For a complete description of the data acquisition and processing parameters, please see the data acquisition and processing reports (DAPRs) for projects: NF-04-06-VI and NF-05-05-VI (Monaco & Rooney, 2004; Battista & Lazar, 2005).

The marine benthic habitats of seabed areas between the reefs of Torres Strait were classified with data collected on epibenthos abundance, seagrass presence or absence, substrate type and water depth from 1984 to 1989 at 984 sites in an 12,347 square km study area in central Torres Strait. An idex of habitat diversity, calculated as the variety of distinct habitats within a 10 x 10 km window passed over the study area indicated that the areas with highest diversity of habitats were among the reefs and islands that formed two bands; one from Cape York to Buru Island, and the other from Cape York to Daru Island that included the Warrior reef complex. Refer to the compiled report: Long BG and Taranto TJ. (1997) Habitat Classification Of Seabed Areas Of Torres Strait, Northern Australia. CSIRO Division of Marine Research, QLD, Australia.

This layer details Important Areas (IAs) relevant to coral, sponge, and reef-building 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). 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, geographic features, invertebrates, and other vertebrates. This package also includes project documentation and tech reports relevant to the IA process and its role within the selection of EBSAs.

****New revised data soon available In 2009, DFO defined twelve spatial units in three of Canada's oceans to inform marine planning exercises such as the establishment of marine protected area networks. However, these bioregions cover large territories and are ecologically heterogeneous, especially along the coasts. The ecological regionalization presented in this report is based on existing classification systems, in particular those of Parks Canada, Environment Canada, DFO and MELCC, in addition to the unique ecological characteristics of each sub-region in terms of habitats, breeding grounds, feeding grounds, migratory routes, surface deposits, geomorphology, etc. For the Quebec region, a total of 12 sub-ecoregions have been identified. The analyzes leading to these sub-ecoregions are both based on a description of terrestrial ecosystems adjacent to the coast and on a marine description. Consultation with experts in marine biology and conservation helped refine our analyses and conclusions. Data presented here are the limit of the 12 ecoregions made from this work. A technical report is available for more details : Narancic, B. et Gendreau, Y. 2022. Écorégionalisation du territoire côtier de l’estuaire et du golfe Saint-Laurent. Rapp. tech. can. sci. halieut. aquat. 0000 :vii + 27p.

Line point intercept (LPI) surveys and benthic composition assessments were conducted during Rapid Ecological Assessments (REA) as part of the Pacific Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) cruise HA1101 in Marianas from 20110407 to 20110509. Surveys are conducted by the Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) of the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) at biennial intervals to support a long-term NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) for sustainable management and conservation of coral reef ecosystems. During the cruise, 3 REA sites were surveyed at Farallon de Pajaros in Marianas. Benthic biologists from NOAA's Coral Reef Ecosystem Division conducted Line Point Intercept surveys to quantitatively document the benthic cover at pre-determined long-term monitoring REA sites. Two linear 25 m transects were surveyed with a 5 m inter-transect region between the end of Transect 1 and the start of Transect 2. The LPI diver determines the benthic composition at 20 cm intervals for a total of 125 data points per transect. All living benthic elements (e.g., coral, algae, and other invertebrates) were identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible, often substituting functional group categories for turf algae and crustose coralline algae when identification in the field was extremely difficult. In cases where the substrate is bare or covered with turf algae, the substrate composition is also noted as either sand, rock, rubble, carbonate pavement, or dead coral. The data allows for the assessment and monitoring of species composition and abundance and provide the basis for computing quantitative estimates of percent cover at higher taxonomic levels like functional group (live coral, macroalgae, turf algae) or on a finer taxonomic resolution such as genus level.