St. Lawrence River Fish Distribution and Spawning Areas for Oil Spill Sensitivity, 2021

Vector polygons and points representing freshwater and anadromous fish species in the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario to L'Ile-Saint-Regis Island. The data characterize biological resources by their sensitivity to oil spills and include associated tables for species abundance, seasonality, and life history. It is part of the 2021 Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data for the Great Lakes St. Lawrence River, produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Use Cases

• Modeling oil spill impact zones based on fish distribution and concentration areas.
• Planning conservation efforts for spawning and nursery areas identified in the point data.
• Analyzing seasonal species vulnerability using the associated abundance and seasonality tables.
• Integrating biological sensitivity data with shoreline habitat and human-use resources for comprehensive environmental assessment.

Strengths

• Data includes both polygon features for distribution and point features for specific spawning/nursery sites.
• Associated tables provide species-specific attributes like abundance, seasonality, and life history.
• Part of a standardized Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework for oil spill response.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in PDF format, which is not ideal for direct geospatial analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely compiled from biological surveys and research for environmental sensitivity mapping.

Time Range

2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:30:46.928123; freshness should be verified.

Geography

St. Lawrence River from the headwaters of Lake Ontario, northeast to the western portion of L'Ile-Saint-Regis Island (Canada).