Cultured Finfish Escapes from British Columbia Aquaculture Sites

Fisheries and Oceans Canada collects reports on escape events from licensed aquaculture facilities in British Columbia. Mandatory reports detail the cause, time, location, species, size, and number of escaped fish, along with fish health information. The dataset is supplemented by voluntary reports from the Atlantic Salmon Watch Program.

Use Cases

• Analyze the frequency and primary causes of escape events reported by licence holders to identify common infrastructure failures.
• Model the relationship between escaped fish species and reported size to estimate potential environmental biomass releases.
• Cross-reference escape locations and times with environmental data to assess regional risk patterns for invasive species establishment.
• Track the submission timeliness of initial reports versus detailed written reports to monitor regulatory compliance.

Strengths

• Data collection is mandated by federal Pacific Aquaculture Regulations, ensuring a formal reporting mechanism.
• Includes fish health information such as exposure to therapeutants, relevant for ecological risk assessment.
• Supplemented by long-term voluntary public reporting through the Atlantic Salmon Watch Program, active since July 2005.

Limitations

• The dataset's completeness may be affected by under-reporting or detection failures of escape events.
• Voluntary reports from the Atlantic Salmon Watch Program may introduce geographic or observer bias.
• Specific data volume (row count) and granularity (available columns) are not documented in the input.

Provenance

Source

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Collection Method

Mandatory reports from aquaculture licence holders and voluntary public reports via the Atlantic Salmon Watch Program.

Time Range

Atlantic Salmon Watch Program data is summarized from July 2005 onward; full escape report timeline is unspecified.

Freshness

null

Geography

Aquaculture sites in British Columbia, Canada.