Terms of Reference

Application of the framework to support decisions on authorizing scientific surveys with bottom contacting gears in protected areas with defined benthic conservation objectives in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Zonal Science Response Process – Quebec and Gulf Regions

September 12, 2019
Mont-Joli, QC

Co-Chairs: Gérald Chaput and Charley Cyr

Context

Canada is rapidly increasing the number of protected areas in its domestic coastal and marine waters to meet international conservation targets. This has created an urgent need for approaches for determining which human activities will be allowed within these areas in light of site-specific conservation objectives and monitoring requirements. Scientific activities contribute information that can support conservation-related management decision making within protected areas and in the broader ecosystem (e.g., advice for sustainable fisheries, species recovery, and ecosystem status). However, these same scientific activities can harm organisms, populations, assemblages and habitats within protected areas and therefore can hinder the achievement of conservation objectives, suggesting a need to evaluate the relative costs and benefits of conducting scientific activities within protected areas. This is particularly true for areas with ecologically sensitive benthic taxa and features, which can be harmed by bottom-contacting sampling gear such as bottom-trawls used in multispecies surveys. On the other hand, excluding surveys from protected areas may preclude the gathering of information to support the management of these areas and that can form the basis of advice for the management of populations and communities in the broader ecosystem.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has produced a National Framework to support the management decision making process regarding the authorization of ongoing recurrent scientific activities (surveys), within protected areas (DFO 2018). Briefly, this advice comprises the following:

1. An evaluation of the potential impact of survey activities within protected areas.
2. An evaluation of potential mitigation measures that could reduce the impact of scientific activities in the protected areas.
3. An evaluation of the benefits of survey activities to the management of protected areas.
4. An evaluation of the potential consequences of excluding scientific survey sampling in protected areas in terms of:
   1. Consequences to science and conservation within protected areas, and
   2. Consequences to science and conservation in the broader ecosystem.

Objective

The objectives of this review are to:

Assess the magnitude of the impacts of all DFO scientific surveys (Quebec, Gulf and Newfoundland and Labrador Regions) using bottom-contacting sampling gear under DFO's recurring monitoring programs on protected areas with benthic conservation objectives in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence bioregion as indicated in DFO 2018.

These protected areas include those defined by ”Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures”, including marine coral and sponge refuges and the scallop fishing buffer zone, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence (e.g. American Bank). The elements specified in DFO 2018 will need to be provided and quantified to enable Resource and Ocean Management programmes to assess whether these scientific surveys are consistent with the conservation objectives of these areas. The response could also be used as a basis for assessing requests for authorization of external scientific activities.

Expected Publications

• Science Response
• Research Document

Expected Participation

• Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) (Science, Resource Management and Oceans Management Sectors)

References

DFO. 2018. Framework to support decisions on authorizing scientific surveys with bottom-contacting gears in protected areas with defined benthic conservation objectives. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Sci. Advis. Rep. 2018/043.