Terms of Reference

Screening of Pacific Fishery Regulations (PFR) Schedule VIII species for risk of invasiveness

National Science Response Process – National Capital Region

February 20-21, 2017
Ottawa, Ontario

Chairpersons: Gilles Olivier, Ashley Kling, Justine Mannion

Context

The Pacific Fishery Regulations (PFR) Schedule VIII contains a list of aquatic taxa that are prohibited from live import into British Columbia; however, the list is large, out of date, and taxonomically confounded^{Footnote 1}. As there is a desire to ensure consistency between relevant aquatic taxa listed under Schedule VIII of the PFR with the Federal Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Regulations, a risk assessment process is needed to inform potential future amendments to the Federal AIS Regulations.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Ecosystems and Fisheries Management (EFM) sector has requested science advice to:

1. evaluate the suitability of the Canadian Marine Invasive Screening Tool (CMIST) for use on all aquatic taxa represented in the PFR Schedule VIII and,
2. in the context of the above analysis, evaluate the aquatic taxa listed in the PFR Schedule VIII for risk of invasiveness in British Columbia.

To ensure that the risk results can be compared effectively across all taxa contained in Schedule VIII of the PFR, facilitating any future regulatory amendments, species on the list are being assessed using a single risk assessment tool. A screening-level risk assessment (SLRA) tool, CMIST, was previously developed and tested on marine invertebrates (DFO 2015; DFO 2016; Drolet et. al. 2016); however, the need for further work to validate the applicability of CMIST to assess other NIS taxa was identified.

The PFR Schedule VIII contains primarily freshwater fishes and a few marine invertebrates (gastropods and crustaceans).  At this meeting, a subset of these taxa will be used to evaluate the suitability of CMIST for use on all aquatic taxa represented in the PFR Schedule VIII. The prioritization process used when applying CMIST to the PFR Schedule VIII will be outlined in the Science Response, including supporting rationale.

Objective

1. Review the results for a subset of species of each aquatic taxon listed in the PFR Schedule VIII that were evaluated using CMIST (i.e., freshwater fishes and marine gastropods and crustaceans), and determine the suitability of using CMIST for these aquatic taxa.

Expected Publication

• Science Response

Expected Participation

• Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) (Ecosystems and Oceans Science, and Ecosystems and Fisheries Management)
• British Columbia Ministry of the Environment

References

DFO. 2015. Marine Screening-Level Risk Assessment Protocol for Marine Non-Indigenous Species. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2015/044.

DFO. 2016. Proceedings of the National Peer Review on Marine Screening-Level Risk Assessment Protocol for Aquatic Non-Indigenous Species; February 4-6, 2015. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Proceed. Ser. 2016/033.

Drolet, D., DiBacco, C., Locke, A., McKenzie, C., McKindsey, C., Moore, A., Webb, J., and Therriault, T. 2016. Evaluation of a new screening-level risk assessment tool applied to non-indigenous marine invertebrates in Canadian coastal waters. Biol Invasions 18: 279.