Fish samples in the Labrador Sea and Canadian Arctic (2017-2025)

Climate change has resulted in increased abundances of boreal fish species in the Arctic and altered distributions of indigenous species. Changes in fish composition could result in additional fishing opportunities in the Canadian Arctic. However, while the demersal ecosystem components have received increased attention, the distributions and dynamics of the main pelagic forage fish species (key prey of commercially exploited demersal fish) remain unknown. This project addresses critical knowledge gaps in pelagic ecosystems, which facilitate better forecasting of how ongoing climatic changes will affect fisheries productivity. Acoustic-trawl surveys from the CCGS Amundsen were conducted from 2017 - 2025 to establish baseline knowledge on the occurrence and distribution of Arctic and boreal fish and zooplankton in Northern Labrador and the Canadian Arctic, and to continue the ArcticNet time-series initiated in 2003. This datasets concerns the species collected from both mid-water and bottom trawls deployed from CCGS Amundsen.