Harbour Seal Presence Likelihood in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy and Port Hawkesbury

Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Coastal Ecosystems Science Division delineates the seasonal presence of Harbour seals in the Bay of Fundy and Port Hawkesbury areas of Nova Scotia. The dataset was created for Area Response Planning under the World Class Tanker Safety System initiative and is available in a version following the National Environmental Emergency Center data model. It was published in June 2018 and is based on a review of science and local knowledge sources as of March 2017.

Use Cases

• Modeling potential oil spill impacts on marine mammal populations based on seasonal presence data.
• Planning marine protected areas or conservation zones based on seal habitat likelihood.
• Integrating environmental data into emergency response systems for the World Class Tanker Safety System.
• Analyzing coastal ecosystem health by correlating seal presence with other environmental variables.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a review of both scientific sources and local knowledge by DFO Science.
• Available in multiple geospatial formats (CSV, ESRI REST, FGDB/GDB) for interoperability.
• Dataset is versioned, with a specific model created for the National Environmental Emergency Center.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data reflects a specific snapshot as of March 2017; ecological conditions may have changed.
• Row count and spatial resolution are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. Andrews, N.B.

Collection Method

Review of science sources and local knowledge sources to estimate seasonal presence.

Time Range

Snapshot as of March 2017, published June 2018.

Freshness

Last updated 2026 03 24 09:09:58.498408; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Bay of Fundy and Port Hawkesbury areas of Nova Scotia, Canada.