Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence Estuary Fish and Environmental Monitoring Data

Community groups collected data on fish, shrimp, and crab species abundance, water conditions, and sediment samples from bays and estuaries. Sampling occurred from May to September in initial years, then June to August, with single annual surveys in 2018 and 2019. The data supports indicator development for assessing estuary health.

Use Cases

• Analyze relationships between species richness and water parameters like temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen.
• Model fish and crab abundance as a function of sediment characteristics including % organic content and mean grain size.
• Assess the health indicator suitability of aquatic communities using species developmental stage (young-of-the-year or adult) data.
• Examine temporal trends in dissolved inorganic nutrient levels (nitrate, nitrite, phosphate) across sampling stations.

Strengths

• Data undergoes a two-stage quality control process: initial verification by CAMP summer students and a second verification by DFO staff.
• Since 2018, data entry uses a custom application with built-in quality control elements, migrated from historical Excel files.
• Parameters include multiple environmental dimensions: species counts, water conditions, sediment properties, and aquatic vegetation cover.

Limitations

• The dataset lacks explicit metadata on total row count, column count, or file size, limiting initial assessment of scale.
• Sampling frequency was reduced to a single annual event per estuary in 2018 and 2019, reducing temporal resolution for those years.
• Reliance on community group sampling may introduce variability in data collection methods across different estuaries.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Community group members and staff sampled six stations monthly in designated estuaries using beach seine nets, with samples released after identification and counting.

Time Range

Sampling conducted from May through September initially, then June through August, with single annual surveys in 2018 and 2019.

Freshness

Data record was last updated in March 2026, indicating ongoing maintenance.

Geography

Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence bays and estuaries.