Eelgrass Bed Health and Cover Maps for Three New Brunswick Estuaries

Tabusintac, Cocagne, and Bouctouche estuaries in northern New Brunswick were surveyed in 2008 using a towfish package with video and sidescan sonar. The dataset includes maps of eelgrass cover, health indicators like epiphyte load, and ancillary bottom features. The method provides sub-meter precision for bay-scale assessment in turbid water conditions.

Use Cases

• Compare eelgrass health scores and epiphyte load across the Tabusintac, Cocagne, and Bouctouche estuaries to identify environmental stressors.
• Analyze spatial correlations between eelgrass cover maps and ancillary features like benthic algal growth or bacterial mats for habitat modeling.
• Validate remote sensing methods in turbid estuaries using the high-precision, ground-truthed eelgrass cover and health data.

Strengths

• Data collection method using video and sidescan sonar is designed for high-precision, sub-meter assessment in turbid water where other remote sensing fails.
• Covers three distinct estuaries (Tabusintac, Cocagne, Bouctouche), enabling comparative analysis of eelgrass conditions.
• Includes multiple derived data products such as maps of eelgrass cover, health, and ancillary bottom features.

Limitations

• Data is from a single year (2008), limiting analysis of trends or changes over time.
• The presence of material like Leptomitus was noted but not positively identified, indicating potential uncertainty in some biological classifications.
• Sample data and specific row/column counts are unavailable, making the dataset's exact size and structure unclear prior to download.

Provenance

Source

Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Collection Method

Data gathered using a towfish deployed along transects, equipped with an underwater video camera with scaling lasers, sidescan sonar, and a transponder-based positioning system.

Time Range

2008

Freshness

Data was collected in 2008; the record was last updated in the catalog on 2026-03-24.

Geography

Three estuaries in northern New Brunswick, Canada: Tabusintac, Cocagne, and Bouctouche.