Zones were created to manage the potential spread of fish pathogens. This product requires the use of GIS software. *[GIS]: geographic information system

The Fish Management Zone dataset is comprised of all the polygons that represent the Fish Management Zones in Alberta. Fish Management Zone is an area having its own unique assemblage of water bodies, species of game fish and management regimes.

This spatial dataset represents the locations of aquatic resource area (ARA) line segments derived from corresponding line features in the Ontario Hydro Network. ARA line segments may represent a portion of a water body or an entire water body (such as a lake, river or stream). Attributes for each location may include: * physical characteristics such as water temperature and depth * fish species The ARA data classes are the authoritative source for generic spatial data related to fish species in Ontario. The data can be used for: * forest and fisheries management planning * municipal planning * natural heritage and land use planning * issuing work permits under the [Public Lands Act](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90p43), 1990 * issuing licenses under the [Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act](https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/97f41), 1997 * fulfilling public information requests There are additional sensitive data related to provincially tracked species and species at risk that are not available as part of this open data package. Distribution of sensitive species data is approved on a need-to-know basis. Requests should be sent to [geospatial@ontario.ca](mailto:geospatial@ontario.ca).

Fisheries Management Zones have replaced former Fishing Divisions and are the geographic basis for managing, monitoring, assessing and regulating recreational fisheries for a majority of lakes and streams in a zone. Each zone is based on angler usage and ecological/geographic patterns such as climate zones, watersheds and road networks. This product requires the use of GIS software. *[GIS]: geographic information system

This spatial boundary supports the marine bioregional boundaries as described in the State of the Fisheries Reports, that follows those of the Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia report (IMCRA Technical Group) except for the inclusion of the Gascoyne coast as a separate region.

The Fisheries Contact Boundaries dataset is comprised of all the polygons that represent the Environment and Protected Areas Fisheries Contact Boundaries within the Province of Alberta. The dataset is to help Government of Alberta Staff and external consultants to determine which Biologist is responsible for and has authority over Research Licenses (RL-PAAS and traditional RLs), FWMIS Data Requests, and other Fisheries Management approvals within that region. Please refer to the metadata included with the data for full entity attribute information.

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.