Intertidal Habitat Types in Musquash Marine Protected Area from Drone Imagery

November 2025 data from drone surveys of 61 transects within the Musquash Marine Protected Area in New Brunswick, Canada. The dataset characterizes intertidal habitats using orthomosaic maps derived from aerial photography to support marine pollution response and conservation planning. It was created by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to develop rapid, affordable habitat survey methodologies.

Use Cases

• Classify intertidal habitat types using orthomosaic maps derived from drone imagery for marine conservation planning.
• Analyze habitat composition across 61 surveyed transects to inform marine spill response strategies near oil and gas facilities.
• Develop and validate RPAS-based survey methodologies for habitat mapping in other coastal systems of Atlantic Canada.
• Support Marine Protected Area monitoring efforts by assessing habitat distribution within the Musquash MPA tidal river system.

Strengths

• Provides high-resolution habitat profiles from drone imagery flown at 100m altitude with 70-80% image overlap.
• Covers 61 distinct transects within a Marine Protected Area, a region of conservation concern.
• Data is specifically intended to inform marine spill response planning and supports methodological development for coastal surveys.

Limitations

• Spatial coverage is limited to the Musquash Marine Protected Area and may not be representative of other coastal systems.
• The dataset's utility for time-series analysis is limited as it represents a snapshot from a specific survey period.
• Data formats like ESRI REST and FGDB require specialized GIS software for full analysis, which may limit accessibility.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Coastal Ecosystems Science Division.

Collection Method

Aerial photography via DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise drone flown at 100m altitude, with images compiled into orthomosaic maps using Pix4Dmatic software.

Time Range

Survey conducted circa November 2025.

Freshness

Data was last updated in March 2026 and published in November 2025.

Geography

Musquash Marine Protected Area, New Brunswick, Canada (tidal river outflow into the Bay of Fundy).