Portrait of commercial activities
Methodology
Method used to create the maps for the portrait of the commercial fisheries and other commercial activities of the Gesgapegiag, Gespeg and Wahsipekuk (Viger) communities from 2010 to 2017
The following series of maps were generated using ArcGIS Online (ESRI) software; the available data for the commercial fisheries activities of the three Aboriginal communities for the period from 2010 to 2017 was obtained from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The 2018 data, except for those from Nignag, could not be incorporated into the analysis because they were not yet available when this Atlas was produced. The maps included in this commercial fisheries portrait were validated by the managers in charge of fisheries for each of the three communities.
For certain species commercially fished in small areas, such as the waved whelk, mackerel, Bluefin Tuna, rock crab, and green sea urchin, the maps in this Atlas illustrate the locations of small harvesting sectors. They were drawn using the coordinates for the places where the related fishing events began and ended.
As for the northern shrimp, snow crab, Atlantic halibut and Greenland halibut fisheries, which take place within larger stretches of the St. Lawrence River and its estuary and gulf as well as in Chaleur Bay, the maps in the Atlas illustrate the volume harvested in kilograms (kg) per single fishing quadrangle. This geographical unit used by DFO, which represents an area of approximately 18 km x 25 km, adequately encompasses the area between the coordinates for the places where the fishing events begin and end. It serves somewhat as a common denominator for the various species and can be used to compare the locations of the fishing grounds and the volumes harvested for the three communities.
Finally, the quantities of lobster fished (kg) were estimated from the quantities sold to the processing plants obtained by DFO, since most of the coordinates were either missing or wrong and there were also errors in the volumes harvested (kg). Instead, the maps show the locations of this fishery, which were estimated taking into consideration lobster fishing areas and bathymetry (< 20 m).
It is important to point out that the total value of catches was estimated by taking into consideration the average annual price paid for each individual species; these figures were also obtained from DFO.
The chapter on seaweed farming shows the locations of the aquaculture sites leased by MMAFMA for the production of seaweed, (microalgae), from 2015 to 2018 as well as the new aquaculture site acquired by MMAFMA since autumn 2018.
The polygons representing the aquaculture sites were drawn using geographical coordinates obtained from MAPAQ. This map was generated using ArcGIS Online (ESRI).
