Hundreds of shellfish harvesting sites in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and British Columbia are regularly tested for Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) and other toxins. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) monitors these areas, providing early warnings and triggering closures via Fisheries and Oceans Canada when toxin levels are unacceptable. This program focuses on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a 250,000 square kilometer enclosed sea and major commercial fishing area.
Use Cases
- Predict harvesting area closure status from biotoxin test results and location data.
- Analyze temporal trends in PSP toxin levels using sample collection dates and result values.
- Model spatial risk of biotoxin contamination across hundreds of monitored sites using waterbody and watershed names.
- Correlate shellfish species information with biotoxin accumulation rates for different commercially harvested marine species.
Strengths
- Monitoring covers hundreds of sites across multiple Canadian provinces.
- Program includes data on dates and results of preceding sanitary surveys for each area.
- Focus on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a 250,000 square kilometer ecosystem.
Limitations
- Specific row count, column names, and sample data are unavailable.
- Geographic coverage is limited to Canada, specifically Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and British Columbia.
- The temporal range and update frequency of the underlying data files are unknown.
Provenance
- Source
- Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), sourced via NASA Earthdata.
- Collection Method
- Regular testing and analysis of shellfish samples from monitored harvesting areas.
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Atlantic Canada, Quebec, British Columbia, with focus on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.