Multidisciplinary winter survey for assessing groundfish in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (MV Gadus Atlantica 1978 - 1994)

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) conducted a winter multidisciplinary scientific surveys with a bottom trawl the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence and Cabot Straight from 1978 to 1994. The specificities of the missions onboard the MV Lady Hammond are described below.

Objectives:

1. Assess groundfish populations abundance and condition

2. Assess environmental conditions

3. Conduct a biodiversity inventory of benthic and demersal megafauna

4. Collect samples for various research projects

Survey description

This winter survey covers the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, that is the divisions 4R, 4S and 3Pn of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO). A stratified random sampling strategy is used for this survey and the fishing gear used on the MV Gadus Atlantica is an Engel 145 Otter trawl. Standard trawling tows last 30 minutes, starting from the time the trawl touches the sea floor. Towing speed is 3.5 knots.

Data

For each fishing tow, the catch is sorted and weighed by taxa; individuals are counted and biological data are collected on a subsample. For fish, crab and squid, size and weight are measured by individual and, for some species, sex, gonad maturity, and the weight of certain organs (stomach, liver, gonads) are also evaluated. The soft rays of the anal fin are counted for redfish and otoliths are collected for Greenland halibut and Atlantic cod. Invertebrates are weighted and counted (no individual measurements).

The biological data are divided into 4 files: a “Metadata” file containing set information, a “Catches” file containing catches per set for fish taxa, a “Carbio” file containing morphometric measurements per individual and a “Freql” file containing the length frequency of fish.

It's important to note that this is raw data. Only sets considered successful are retained. In each set, all species are kept, with a few exceptions. For more information please contact the data management team ([email protected]).

Datasets available for download

• Data dictionaryCSV
  To Download

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  • Go to resource
• Gadus Atlantica Data MapEsri REST
  To Download

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• Data Gadus AtlanticaCSV
  To Download

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• Gadus Atlantica Data MapEsri REST
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• Data Gadus AtlanticaCSV
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• Aquatic animals
• Aquatic ecosystems
• Fish
• Fisheries management
• Groundfish...
• Gulf of St. Lawrence
• Marine biology
• Nature and Environment
• Oceans
• Science and Technology

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (54%)
• Maturity Level 2 (38%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 02:08 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 02:08 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.	Biota
Title Title for the Dataset.	Multidisciplinary winter survey for assessing groundfish in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (MV Gadus Atlantica 1978 - 1994)
Description A description of the dataset.	Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) conducted a winter multidisciplinary scientific surveys with a bottom trawl the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence and Cabot Straight from 1978 to 1994. The specificities of the missions onboard the MV Lady Hammond are described below. Objectives: Assess groundfish populations abundance and condition Assess environmental conditions Conduct a biodiversity inventory of benthic and demersal megafauna Collect samples for various research projects Survey description This winter survey covers the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, that is the divisions 4R, 4S and 3Pn of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO). A stratified random sampling strategy is used for this survey and the fishing gear used on the MV Gadus Atlantica is an Engel 145 Otter trawl. Standard trawling tows last 30 minutes, starting from the time the trawl touches the sea floor. Towing speed is 3.5 knots. Data For each fishing tow, the catch is sorted and weighed by taxa; individuals are counted and biological data are collected on a subsample. For fish, crab and squid, size and weight are measured by individual and, for some species, sex, gonad maturity, and the weight of certain organs (stomach, liver, gonads) are also evaluated. The soft rays of the anal fin are counted for redfish and otoliths are collected for Greenland halibut and Atlantic cod. Invertebrates are weighted and counted (no individual measurements). The biological data are divided into 4 files: a “Metadata” file containing set information, a “Catches” file containing catches per set for fish taxa, a “Carbio” file containing morphometric measurements per individual and a “Freql” file containing the length frequency of fish. It's important to note that this is raw data. Only sets considered successful are retained. In each set, all species are kept, with a few exceptions. For more information please contact the data management team ([email protected]).
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Aquatic animals Aquatic ecosystems Fish Fisheries management Groundfish... Gulf of St. Lawrence Marine biology Nature and Environment Oceans Science and Technology
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2019-01-01
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/4bbd03ce-ae48-4aaa-97ac-5594c2a3a6c2
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pêches et Océans Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?	Government of Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Sciences/SAISB, [email protected]
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	[email protected]
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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