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Coastal Environmental Baseline Program

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Aerial view of a west coast fjord with forest on each coast, a boat in motion with its wake trailing behind.

Belcarra, British Columbia. Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

We established the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program (Baseline Program) in 2017, as one of the initiatives under the Protecting the Marine Environment pillar of the Government of Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan. We contribute to coastal and waterway protection by providing funding for scientific activities that help us learn more about Canada’s coastal ecosystems.

Coastal ecosystems provide important habitat for species and essential ecosystem services both to local communities and the rest of Canada. These ecosystems are facing strong pressures, such as climate change, marine traffic and development. The more we know about these ecosystems, the better we can plan for and support coastal management.

Goals

The Baseline Program supports the collection of ecological data to describe the current state (baseline) of key coastal areas across Canada.

The data is collected by Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientists and a growing number of partners, including First Nations, Inuit, environmental non-government organizations, fisheries associations, academia and local governments.

The Baseline Program takes a collaborative approach to delivery through partner engagement and co-development of priorities for data collection.

Overview

As of 2024, the Baseline Program has undertaken 90 projects led by DFO scientists and has supported a further 142 projects with partners throughout Canada, providing an investment of more than $60 million towards coastal ecosystem science.

The projects consider a variety of physical and biological characteristics to better understand the current state of each coastal ecosystem.

Projects involve a variety of activities, including:

  • field work
  • performing laboratory analyses
  • supporting technical training
  • contributing to student stipends
  • supporting local employment
  • purchasing scientific equipment
  • outreach and engagement activities

Data collected through the Baseline Program will be openly available and compatible with international standards. For access Baseline Program data visit Coastal Environmental Baseline Program - Projects, Open data and Publications.

The Coastal Environmental Baseline Program Overview infographic describes key facts about the first five years of the program. The infographic is divided into 4 sections, each describing a different element or statistic of the program. On the left hand side, the 4 national goals that drive the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program are listed as follows: - Address community concerns - Coverage along all three ocean coasts - Include local communities in regional program design and implementation - Data meet national and international standards and are publicly accessible In the center, a map of Canada is showing the six key coastal areas where ecological data was collected to set benchmarks for future development and ecosystem health. Each coastal area shows the number of projects led by partners or DFO scientists: - Port of Prince Rupert, located on the North Coast of British Columbia, has 16 partner projects and 14 DFO projects. - Port of Vancouver, located on the south coast of British Columbia, has 3 partner projects and 11 DFO projects. - Iqaluit, located in Nunavut in the northeast, has 17 partner projects and 8 DFO projects. - Lower St. Lawrence Estuary, located in southeastern Quebec, has 18 partner projects and 9 DFO projects. - Port of Saint John, located on the east coast in southern New Brunswick, has 21 partner projects and 8 DFO projects. - Placentia Bay, located on the far east coast in Newfoundland, has 22 partner projects and 11 DFO projects. Below the map of Canada, the total number of partner and DFO projects is shown. There are 98 total partner projects, with one additional project focused on data collection with a national scope. There are 61 total DFO projects. On the right hand side, the partner organizations are broken down by category, represented by a circular diagram made up of different colors to represent types of partner organizations, with a legend underneath. - Dark green: academic institutions - Teal: research centers - Bright yellow: indigenous organizations - Light green: non-governmental organizations - Muted yellow: Provincial/Territorial Government and Port Authorities - Green: fisheries organizations Non-governmental organizations and Indigenous organizations make up the majority of partners (approximately one third each). The last third is mainly composed of academic institutions, followed by research centers, provincial/territorial governments and port authorities, and fisheries organizations, in descending order.

Infographic: Overview of the Coastal Environmental Baseline Program, it’s goals, project partners and locations.

Two technicians sitting facing one another on a boat, working on a sampling apparatus, with the water and coastline in the background.

Two technicians taking water samples in the Port of Saint John, New Brunswick. Photo: Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Projects (2018-2023)

The Baseline Program focused on six coastal ecosystems from 2018 to 2023. Find out more about projects at these key coastal sites:

A summary of the science undertaken and the results in these coastal ecosystems is available in the report Five Years of Coastal Science - The Coastal Environmental Baseline Program 2018-2023.

For more information, visit Introduction to the Baseline Program.

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