Photo Archive of In Situ Benthic Imagery from the St. Anns Bank Marine Protected Area ...

• Main Author: Camille Lirette
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Mendeley 2023
• Subjects: Canada; Hake; atlantic cod
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17632/vhj7cg9y68.1; https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/vhj7cg9y68/1

St. Anns Bank is an exceptional habitat that has many ecologically and biologically significant features. It has the highest annual sea surface temperature range on the Scotian Shelf, and provides important habitat for commercial and non-commercial species, such as Atlantic cod, redfish, white hake, witch flounder, and a variety of sponges, corals and sea pens. Scientific surveys have recorded more than 100 species and a wide variety of habitat types. In addition, St. Anns Bank is part of an important migration corridor for fish and marine mammals, including whales, moving in and out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence Estuary. For these reasons, a 4,364 km 2 area encompassing St. Anns Bank was designated as a Marine Protected Area by Fisheries and Oceans Canada in June 2017 (https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/oceans/mpa-zpm/stanns-sainteanne/index-eng.html). The conservation objectives for the MPA are: • Conserve and protect all major benthic, demersal (i.e., close to the sea floor) and pelagic (i.e., in ...