Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

The establishment of multibeam echosounders (MBES) as a mainstream tool in ocean mapping has facilitatedintegrative approaches toward seafloor habitat mapping, with potential follow-on benefits for fisheriesapplications. The inherent bathymetric and backscatter information generated by MBES enables detailedinformation to be gathered on seafloor characteristics. This information, when coupled with data on the spatialdistribution of marine species residing on the seafloor, can be used to infer preferred habitat preferences ofthose species on the seafloor, and generate maps of these predicted distributions. Clearwater recentlycommissioned collection of a MBES data set by a third-party survey company to provide information onseafloor characteristics at one of their offshore surf clam fishing grounds, Banquereau Bank. Clearwater have aneed to evaluate the quality of this MBES data, and the spatial coverage and suitability of existing in situ datasets for ground-truthing purposes (i.e. species abundance data from fishing records) from which to generateresource maps of the area to facilitate their surf clam fishing operations on the Bank. NSCC will partner withClearwater in this research project to undertake a desk-based geo-spatial study to compile, analyze and evaluatethe quality and suitability of extant data sets for this purpose. Preliminary testing of a variety of benthic habitatmapping techniques will be undertaken on a subset of the data to evaluate which techniques may be mosteffective and appropriate for use in future development of resource maps. It is anticipated that the project willprovide recommendations to Clearwater on how these data sets can be used to facilitate development ofefficient and sustainable resource harvesting strategies for surf clam on Banquereau Bank, with subsequentcommercial and environmental benefits. Evaluation of this general approach within the context of fisheriesresource mapping offers potential longer term benefits to Canada through application of these mappingtechnologies and further refinement of the data integration methodologies for other Canadian fisheries topromote and develop sustainable harvest strategies.