An Overview of the Science Advice for Implementation of New Fisheries Protection Provisions

In June 2012 the Government of Canada amended the Fisheries Act (FA) to replace several provisions on the protection of fish habitat with new Fishery Protection Provisions (FPP). Since the FPP required changes to existing policies, regulations and operational procedures, scientific advice was sought on the technical aspects of the terms in the FPP and on approaches and tools that could support implementation. This advice was formulated through a series of workshops/meetings with the overall goal of developing an approach to estimate the impacts of development on fisheries productivity that could be used for both ‘small’ projects, as well as for major developments. This paper provides an overview of the resulting productivity-state framework. Specifically, a definition for productivity that is scientifically sound and could be used in the FPP context is provided. Next a framework that links changes in the environment to potential changes of productivity through the use of pathways of effects diagrams and productivity-state response curves is outlined. Finally, advice on how this framework could be implemented in a consistent manner for small to large projects is discussed along with the overarching concepts of scale and managing risk.