Terms of Reference

Review of St. Anns Bank Marine Protection Areas Monitoring: Selected Research Activities, Indicators, and Guidance on Next Steps

Regional Peer Review - Maritimes Region

March 5 - 6, 2024

Dartmouth, NS

Chairperson: Catalina Gomez

Context

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and partners implement monitoring programs in support of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) management. St. Anns Bank was established as an MPA offshore of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in 2017. Active monitoring programs in the St. Anns Bank MPA have been underway since its establishment. A review of this scientific monitoring is needed to support the development and implementation of a long-term monitoring program. This meeting will focus on reviewing several existing monitoring programs within the MPA and their utility for evaluating the conservation objectives of the site. Advice will be provided on selected monitoring priorities, key monitoring gaps, and recommendations for modification of selected existing monitoring programs.

The conservation objectives for St. Anns Bank are to conserve and protect:

• All major benthic, demersal (i.e., close to the sea floor) and pelagic (i.e., in the water column) habitats within the MPA, along with their associated physical, chemical, geological and biological properties and processes;
• Marine areas of high biodiversity at the community, species, population and genetic levels within the MPA; and
• Biological productivity across all trophic levels so that they are able to fulfill their ecological role in the ecosystems of the MPA.

Objectives

The objectives of this meeting are to review several of the existing monitoring and long-term data streams to evaluate whether they can be used to determine if the MPA is meeting its conservation objectives and to provide advice on continuation of current monitoring effort and any modifications to current methods. These data streams will provide updates on some of the data analysed in the St. Anns Bank ecological overview (Ford and Serdynska 2013). The outcomes of the meeting will provide an enhanced examination of the monitoring framework described in Kenchington (2014). These objectives will be accomplished through reviewing the following data collected from within and around the MPA:

• Acoustic telemetry data collected by DFO and the Ocean Tracking Network;
• The DFO enhanced snow crab survey, including bycatch and diet data;
• DFO’s data on cetacean occurrence, primarily from passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) efforts;
• Oceanographic data collection by the Maritimes Region Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program (AZMP) within the St. Anns Bank MPA, and trends in major physical (e.g., temperature, salinity), chemical (e.g., nutrients), and/or biological (e.g., ocean colour, zooplankton) oceanographic conditions within and upstream (Cabot Strait Line) and downstream (Louisbourg Line) of the MPA; and
• Other current and ongoing information and data streams including preliminary results where possible, from within and external to DFO, and how these data and information may contribute to the MPA’s monitoring programs and ongoing management.

Expected Publications

• Science Advisory Report

Expected Participation

• DFO Science
• DFO Ecosystem Management
• Environment and Climate Change Canada
• Nova Scotia Provincial Representatives
• First Nations and Indigenous communities / organizations
• Non-Government Organizations
• Cape Breton Fish Harvesters Association
• Cape Breton University
• Dalhousie University
• Ocean Tracking Network

References

• Ford, J., and Serdynska, A. (Eds.) 2013. Ecological Overview of St. Anns Bank. Can. Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 3023: xiv + 252 p.
• Kenchington, T.J. 2014. A Monitoring Framework for the St. Anns Bank Area of Interest. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2013/117. vi + 77 p.