Proceedings 2017/021

Proceedings of the national peer review of Additional Science Guidance for Fisheries Protection Policy: Science-based Operational tools for Implementation; March 12–14, 2013

Chairpersons: Jake Rice and Roger Wysocki
Editor: Erika Thorleifson

Summary

In June 2012, the Government of Canada introduced amendments to the Fisheries Act. While many of these amendments are not yet in force, the Fisheries Protection Provisions (FPP) made substantive changes to the protection of Canadian fishes and fish habitat. Scientific advice and support are needed to inform implementation of the FPP. Specifically, the FPP includes an explicit purpose for decision-making to provide for the sustainability and ongoing productivity of commercial, recreational and Aboriginal (CRA) fisheries (Section 6.1), and a need to consider the contribution to CRA fisheries productivity when making decisions related to serious harm to fish and permanent alteration to fish habitat (section 6 of the Fisheries Act).

Previous science advice (DFO 2012) has been provided, including biological interpretations of the terms productivity and contribution, and a framework to guide how the contribution of the relevant fish to the ongoing productivity of CRA fisheries should be evaluated. The contribution framework considers how the productivity of CRA fishery species will be affected by changing the state of species or habitats likely to be affected by human activities. The framework allows consideration of both the direct impacts of a project on productivity of CRA fisheries and the potential cumulative impacts when new or increased stressors (e.g., change of flow regime, addition of nutrients, or sedimentation) are introduced.  Such new or increased stressors may initially have no measurable impact on productivity, but alter the state of affected species or habitats in ways that interact with other stressors to decrease productivity. 

To implement this framework, an expectation of how productivity will respond to state changes in specific aspects of fish habitat is required. The Pathways of Effect (PoE) can be used to link human activities to state changes in habitat features. Productivity-state response curves then form the link from changes in state of habitat features to changes in productivity. In this SAR a number of PoE endpoints are assessed and operational advice and guidance is provided on these productivity-state relationships.

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