Potential socioeconomic impacts from ocean acidification and climate change effects on Atlantic Canadian fisheries

purposes of this research, ‘Atlantic Canada’ will also include Quebec, as the province operates fisheries in Atlantic waters and is therefore exposed to potential changes in fisheries (Fig 2). All Canadian marine waters fall under federal jurisdiction and are managed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). In Atlantic Canada, marine waters are divided into four manage- ment areas: Newfoundland and Labrador, Maritime, Gulf, and Quebec (Fig 2). In this analysis the Gulf and the Quebec management areas are treated as a single unit (henceforth, collectively referred to as the Gulf management area) because both management areas are comparatively small and the biophysical model used to project distribution changes does not have sufficient resolution to reliably differentiate between these management areas. The provinces of NS and NB border two management areas (Maritime and Gulf; Fig 2), and landings for each area are reported separately. Fig 1. Average annual landings by species groups by dollar value and tonnage. Arranged by species group for Atlantic Canadian fisheries for 1991–2010. Dollar values are normalised to year 2000 dollars and are in millions of dollars, weights are presented in thousands of tonnes (both data types use the same axis). Includes production from aquaculture. Note, in these data ‘shellfish’ encompasses all harvested marine invertebrate species. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226544.g001 Fig 2. Eastern Canada as it relates to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) fishing areas with

DFO management areas overlaid. For clarity approximate provincial borders have been emphasised in dark blue, U. S. and Canada border has been emphasised in black. In this assessment Gulf and Quebec management areas were treated as a single unit (figure modified from [25]). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226544.g002 OA and climate change impacts on Atlantic Canadian fisheries PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226544 January 10, 2020 3 / 29