Atlantic Cod Commercial Catches in St. Lawrence 1983-Present

Over 40 years of biological data on Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from commercial fisheries in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence. The dataset includes metadata, sample weight, fish length, sex, and the number of specimens measured, collected by DFO staff at wharf or at sea. It provides a large spatio-temporal coverage for assessing population demography and structure.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in fish length and sex ratios over the 40+ year period to monitor population health.
• Model sample weight distributions across different fishing areas and years to understand stock changes.
• Assess the demographic structure of exploited cod populations using the count of specimens measured and biological variables.

Strengths

• Covers a long-term period from 1983 to the present, enabling temporal trend analysis.
• Includes multiple biological variables per record: sample weight, fish length, sex, and specimen count.
• Collected by specialized DFO staff, ensuring authoritative and standardized data collection methods.

Limitations

• Confidentiality protections have simplified or excluded data like exact capture dates and vessel information.
• Entries with only one vessel in a fishing area for a given year were excluded, which may create data gaps.
• The exact number of rows and columns is unknown, making it difficult to assess the dataset's scale and completeness.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Quebec region.

Collection Method

Collected by DFO staff through the commercial catches sampling program at wharves or at sea.

Time Range

1983 to present.

Freshness

Updated regularly, with a last update recorded in March 2026.

Geography

Estuary and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada.