Coastwide Distribution and Uncertainty of Dungeness Crab in British Columbia

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provides two geotiff layers modeling the habitat of Dungeness crab (*Metacarcinus magister*). The first layer shows the mean coastwide probability of crab detection predicted from a geostatistical model, while the second layer represents the uncertainty in those predictions. The data was last updated on March 24, 2026, and is based on an analysis integrating dive, trawl, and baited-trap surveys.

Use Cases

• Predicting species habitat suitability based on integrated survey data from multiple gear types.
• Assessing model prediction uncertainty for marine spatial planning.
• Evaluating the efficacy of data integration methods for geographic extrapolation.
• Mapping the probability of Dungeness crab presence along the British Columbia coast.

Strengths

• Provides both a mean prediction layer and an uncertainty layer for model outputs.
• Model is based on data integration from three distinct survey types: dive, trawl, and baited-trap.
• Source code for model production is publicly available, supporting reproducibility.
• Dataset is published under an open government license (OGL-CA-2.0).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and methodological bias inherent to the regional and sporadic survey sources.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Predictions from six candidate generalized linear mixed-effect models with spatial random fields, assembled from disparate dive, trawl, and baited-trap surveys.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-24 08:08:14.607609; freshness should be verified.

Geography

British Columbia, Canada (coastwide)