This dataset maps fishing locations of American eels on the east coast of Canada, derived from logbook records, interviews with fisheries officers, and data collected by government agencies. Fishing locations indicate presence of eels because fishers would not fish at these locations if eels were absence. However, absence of records does not indicate absence of eels. There may be no eel fishery in a given area for several reasons, including regulatory prohibitions, lack of markets, and lack of a local eel fishing tradition.
","language":"eng","homepage":"http://iobis.org/mapper/?resource_id=2809","citation":{"text":"Cairns D, Kennedy M (2026). American eel distribution on the east coast of Canada as inferred from fishing records. Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/zxdpbz accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-10-12.","identifier":"http://iobis.org/mapper/?resource_id=2809","citationProvidedBySource":false},"contactsCitation":[{"key":6911965,"abbreviatedName":"Cairns D","firstName":"David","lastName":"Cairns","roles":["ORIGINATOR"],"userId":[]},{"key":6911966,"abbreviatedName":"Kennedy M","firstName":"Mary","lastName":"Kennedy","roles":["METADATA_AUTHOR"],"userId":[]}],"lockedForAutoUpdate":false,"createdBy":"c98a8d0d-cab2-4506-8c0f-c91a5e4996b9","modifiedBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-02-13T18:46:03.002+00:00","modified":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.309+00:00","contacts":[{"key":6911965,"type":"ORIGINATOR","primary":true,"userId":[],"firstName":"David","lastName":"Cairns","position":["Primary contact"],"email":["david.cairns@dfo-mpo.gc.ca"],"phone":["(902) 566-7825"],"homepage":[],"organization":"Fisheries and Oceans Canada","address":["Box 1236"],"city":"Charlottetown","province":"Prince Edward Island","country":"CA","postalCode":"C1A 7M8","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","modifiedBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.273+00:00","modified":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.273+00:00"},{"key":6911966,"type":"METADATA_AUTHOR","primary":true,"userId":[],"firstName":"Mary","lastName":"Kennedy","position":["OBIS Canada node manager"],"email":["obiscanada@dfo-mpo.gc.ca"],"phone":[],"homepage":["http://obiscanada.marinebiodiversity.ca/"],"organization":"OBIS Canada","address":["Bedford Institute of Oceanography"],"city":"Dartmouth","province":"Nova Scotia","country":"CA","postalCode":"B2Y 4A2","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","modifiedBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.276+00:00","modified":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.276+00:00"},{"key":6911967,"type":"ADMINISTRATIVE_POINT_OF_CONTACT","primary":true,"userId":[],"firstName":"David","lastName":"Cairns","position":["Primary contact"],"email":["david.cairns@dfo-mpo.gc.ca"],"phone":["(902) 566-7825"],"homepage":[],"organization":"Fisheries and Oceans Canada","address":["Box 1236"],"city":"Charlottetown","province":"Prince Edward Island","country":"CA","postalCode":"C1A 7M8","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","modifiedBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.278+00:00","modified":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.278+00:00"}],"endpoints":[{"key":1242821,"type":"DWC_ARCHIVE","url":"https://ipt.iobis.org/obiscanada/archive.do?r=dfo_gulf_eel_atlas","createdBy":"c98a8d0d-cab2-4506-8c0f-c91a5e4996b9","modifiedBy":"c98a8d0d-cab2-4506-8c0f-c91a5e4996b9","created":"2026-02-13T18:46:04.637+00:00","modified":"2026-02-13T18:46:04.637+00:00","machineTags":[]},{"key":1242820,"type":"EML","url":"https://ipt.iobis.org/obiscanada/eml.do?r=dfo_gulf_eel_atlas","createdBy":"c98a8d0d-cab2-4506-8c0f-c91a5e4996b9","modifiedBy":"c98a8d0d-cab2-4506-8c0f-c91a5e4996b9","created":"2026-02-13T18:46:04.602+00:00","modified":"2026-02-13T18:46:04.602+00:00","machineTags":[]}],"machineTags":[{"key":33014362,"namespace":"crawler.gbif.org","name":"crawl_attempt","value":"29","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-10-05T01:08:10.624+00:00"}],"tags":[],"identifiers":[{"key":463592,"type":"URL","identifier":"https://ipt.iobis.org/obiscanada/resource?r=dfo_gulf_eel_atlas","createdBy":"crawler.gbif.org","created":"2026-02-13T18:47:15.282+00:00","primary":false}],"comments":[],"bibliographicCitations":[{"text":"Cairns, D.K., J.-D. Dutil, S. Proulx, J.D. Mailhiot, M.-C. Bédard, A. Kervella, L.G. Godfrey, E.M. O'Brien, S.C. Daley, E. Fournier, J.P.N. Tomie, and S.C. Courtenay. 2012. An atlas and classification of aquatic habitat on the east coast of Canada, with an evaluation of usage by the American eel. Canadian Technical Reports of Fisheries and Aquatic Science No. 2986. 103 pp. Available at http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/345546.pdf.","citationProvidedBySource":false},{"text":"Georges, S. 2005. Caractérisation de la pêche à l’anguille aux Îles-de-la-Madeleine, saison hiver 2003-2004. Pp. 15-21 in Fournier, D., M. Bernard et V. Cauchon (Eds.). Compte rendu de l’atelier sur les pêches commerciales 2005. Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la faune, Secteur faune Quebec","citationProvidedBySource":false},{"text":"Richard, S. 2008. Portrait de la pêche à l'anguille d'Amérique aux Îles-de-la-Madeleine. Ministère des pêches et des océans, Cap-aux-Meules, Québec.","citationProvidedBySource":false}],"curatorialUnits":[],"taxonomicCoverages":[{"description":"American eel","coverages":[{"scientificName":"Anguilla rostrata","commonName":"American eel","rank":{"verbatim":"species","interpreted":"SPECIES"}}]}],"geographicCoverages":[{"description":"East coast of Canada","boundingBox":{"minLatitude":43.455,"maxLatitude":54.072,"minLongitude":-71.218,"maxLongitude":-52.924,"globalCoverage":false}}],"temporalCoverages":[{"@type":"range","start":"1996-01-01T00:00:00.001+00:00","end":"2010-12-31T00:00:00.001+00:00"}],"keywordCollections":[{"thesaurus":"GCMD thesaurus","keywords":["biological classification","biota","oceans"]},{"thesaurus":"GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type.xml","keywords":["Occurrence"]},{"thesaurus":"GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type_2015-07-10.xml","keywords":["Occurrence"]}],"project":{"title":"An atlas of aquatic habitat on the east coast of Canada","contacts":[{"type":"CONTENT_PROVIDER","primary":false,"userId":[],"firstName":"David","lastName":"Cairns","position":[],"email":[],"phone":[],"homepage":[],"address":[]}],"funding":"Department of Fisheries and Oceans","awards":[],"studyAreaDescription":"The east coast of Canada from the Strait of Belle Isle to the US border, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence estuary up to Ile d'Orléans.","designDescription":"Aquatic habitat on the east coast of Canada was mapped and classified, with emphasis on habitat used by American eels. Data on eel fishing locations were compiled to aid in determining the habitat used by eels.","relatedProjects":[]},"samplingDescription":{"studyExtent":"The study area was the east coast of Canada.","sampling":"Locations of elver fisheries in Newfoundland in 2008 were provided by the elver licence holder.\nLocations of other eel fisheries in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2005 and 2007 were derived from commercial logbooks (G. Veinott, pers. comm.).\nLocations of estuary trap fisheries in the St. Lawrence estuary in 2009 are from records of the Québec Ministère des des ressourcrs naturelles et de la faune (G. Verreault and R. Tardif, pers. comm.).\nLocations of eel fisheries in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence for 2006 - winter 2010 are from interviews with DFO fisheries officers, conducted at local detachment offices during winter 2010.\nLocations of commercial (fyke, longline) eel fisheries in Îles-de-la-Madeleine in 2008 are from Richard (2008), and are based on interviews with fishers and visits to fishing sites. These locations are very similar to those given by Georges (2008). \nLocations of recreational spear fisheries in Îles-de-la Madeleine in the winter of 2003-2004 are from Georges (2005). These locations are approximate, because Georges (2005) identifies lagoons in which eels are speared, but not exact fishing sites. \nLocations of yellow and silver eel fisheries in Scotia Fundy in 2005-2007, and of elver fisheries for 1996-1999 and 2000-2003, are from commercial logbook programs (R. Bradford, C. Harvie, and G. Stevens, pers. comm.). \n\nCoordinates reported for some fishing locations were on the land side of the coastlines. Reported fishing locations that were on land were likely due to small errors in GPS measurements or in digitizing points recorded on paper maps - in such cases fishing locations were shifted to the nearest point in water","qualityControl":"There is only one scientific name associated with this dataset and it was mapped to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)and their code, the WoRMS AphiaID, has been included in this resource in the scientificNameID field as the LSID.","methodSteps":["OBIS Canada provided assistance with the creation of this resource and population of the DwC fields."]},"countryCoverage":[],"collections":[],"dataDescriptions":[],"dataLanguage":"eng","purpose":"These data are for display on the OBIS portal and associated mapping programs and for download to personal computers for ad-hoc end-user analysis.
","additionalInfo":"Access Constraints: none\nUse Constraints:\nAcknowledge the use of specific records from contributing databases in the form appearing in the 'Citation' field thereof (if any); and acknowledge the use of the OBIS facility. \n\nFor information purposes, email to info@iobis.org the full citation of any publication made (printed or electronic) that cites OBIS or any constituent part. \n\nRecognize the limitations of data in OBIS. See http://www.iobis.org/data/policy/disclaimer for more details\n\nFor OBIS Schema concept details see http://www.iobis.org/node/304 \n\n\nDistribution\nDistribution Media: HTTP \nDistribution Format: OBIS Schema \nFees: None","pubDate":"2026-02-13T00:00:00.000+00:00","maintenanceUpdateFrequency":"DAILY","maintenanceDescription":"","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","dwca":{"coreType":"http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Occurrence","extensions":[],"modified":"2026-07-11T00:48:11.726+00:00"},"approximateCounts":{"occurrenceCount":3345}}