An assessment to support decisions on authorizing scientific surveys with bottom-contacting gears in protected areas in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence / Hugues P. Benoît, Natalie C. Asselin, Tobie...: Fs70-5/2020-007E-PDF

"Canada is rapidly increasing the number of protected areas in its coastal and marine waters to meet international conservation targets. This has created an urgent need for approaches to determine 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. Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) national Framework to support decisions on authorizing scientific surveys with bottom-contacting gears in protected areas with defined benthic conservation objectives guides the evaluation of ongoing recurrent scientific activities (surveys), within protected areas. The Framework evaluates four main elements: 1) the potential impact of recurring survey activities within protected areas, 2) potential mitigation measures to reduce their impact, 3) benefits of survey activities to the management of protected areas and 4) potential consequences to the scientific understanding and management of species and communities in the broader ecosystem caused by excluding sampling in protected areas"--Abstract, page xi.

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