Terms of Reference

Science Advice on Regional Productivity Benchmarks

National Peer Review - National Capital Region

September 29 - October 1, 2015
Toronto, Ontario

Chairpersons: Karen Smokorowski and Keith Clarke

Context

The Fisheries Act was amended in 2012 to include new provisions for fisheries protection which came into force in 2013.  The amended Act focuses on managing threats to the sustainability and ongoing productivity of commercial, recreational or Aboriginal fisheries and contains a prohibition against serious harm to fish that are part of or support a commercial, recreational or Aboriginal fishery.  Serious harm to fish is defined in the Act as the death of fish, the permanent alteration to, or destruction of, fish habitat.  If serious harm to fish cannot be avoided, proponents of projects may apply for authorizations.

Although productivity is not part of determining whether serious harm to fish has occurred, Fisheries Protection Program (FPP) considers fisheries productivity, among other factors, when considering whether an authorization is appropriate (section 6, 6.1 in the Fisheries Act)^{Footnote 1}.

The FPP aims to support its project review and decision-making processes with the development of quantitative metrics that can be coupled with decision criteria to assist FPP staff when determining whether to authorize serious harm to fish.

Consistency in decision-making by the FPP would be aided by the development of a methodology that can accommodate a diverse range of project impacts, from fish mortality to the destruction of fish habitat.  Previous advice has been provided on using the concepts of “Equivalent Adults”, area per recruit, and production foregone in regulatory decision-making framework. This advice was largely conceptual and at coarse scale (lakes versus rivers) across Canada, noting that further regional and habitat stratifications may provide more precise estimates.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Ecosystems Management is requesting advice from DFO Science to understand how fisheries productivity varies regionally across Canada, in support of implementation of the fisheries protection provisions. The regional productivity benchmarks are anticipated to be used in the following ways:

• To refine the estimates of equivalent adults and area per individual for informing decisions about whether an authorization is required.
• To provide estimates of regional productivity that can be used for understanding baselines for the purposes of impact assessment in the absence of site-specific data for small-medium impact projects.
• To provide estimates of regional productivity that can be used to reasonably estimate targets of potential gains in productivity expected from offsetting.

Objectives

Participants will review Research Documents to address the following questions:

1. Is it feasible to use estimates of regional fisheries productivity to determine productivity losses and gains expected from project impacts and offsetting?
2. What are reasonable stratifications / spatial units (e.g., watersheds, fisheries management zones, etc.) within which to assess regional variations in fisheries productivity across Canada?
3. How does fisheries productivity vary regionally across Canada and how can this be incorporated into previous advice on the decision-making framework?

These questions and feasibility will be addressed using data and models mainly from freshwater ecosystems. However, some quantitative bottom trawl survey data from coastal marine areas and an appropriate model framework to determine production derived from coastal ecosystems will be presented to initiate discussion of possible application in marine coastal ecosystems.

Expected Publications

• Science Advisory Report
• Proceedings
• Research Document(s) 

Participation

• Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Ecosystems and Oceans Science, Fisheries Protection Program)
• Academia
• Other invited experts