Coastal Aquaculture Site Survey Data from Welch Cove and Jordan Bay

Towfish and echo sounder surveys provide data on bottom type and macrophyte cover for two coastal marine finfish aquaculture sites in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The dataset integrates video, sidescan sonar, and bathymetric data within a GIS framework to assess benthic impacts and baseline conditions. It was published in June 2021 by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Use Cases

• Classify bottom type using integrated towfish video and sidescan sonar data for benthic habitat mapping.
• Ground-truth echo sounder based classifications of macrophyte cover with towfish survey data.
• Analyze spatial data in a GIS to model potential benthic impacts from aquaculture cage placement.
• Establish baseline conditions for long-term environmental monitoring of coastal aquaculture sites using the survey data.

Strengths

• Data from two distinct coastal aquaculture sites in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provides comparative potential.
• Integrates multiple survey methods, including towfish video, sidescan sonar, and echo sounder data.
• Geospatial data is formatted for GIS analysis in FGDB/GDB, ESRI REST, and TIFF formats.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column structures, and sample data are unavailable, limiting initial assessment of data scope.
• The dataset's temporal coverage is not explicitly stated, making trend analysis dependent on a single survey period.
• Focus on two specific Canadian sites limits direct geographic generalizability to other aquaculture regions.

Provenance

Source

Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Collection Method

Surveys conducted using towfish (video and sidescan) and echo sounder equipment, with data integrated into a GIS.

Freshness

Data was published in June 2021, with metadata last updated in March 2026.

Geography

Welch Cove, New Brunswick and Jordan Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada.