DFO Unit Areas, Atlantic Canada (Methodology) (English, PDF)

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2026-05-20

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) statistical unit areas (also referred to as unit areas) are smaller portions of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Subareas, Divisions, and Subdivisions defined in the Convention on Cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries (2020). The spatial representation of boundaries defined by NAFO has recently been updated to address inconsistencies and errors in earlier versions, which is available here: https://open.canada.ca/data/dataset/59af1c96-fc8f-4fa0-b398-d65e953eadaa#comment-41855. Unit areas are used by DFO for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to stock assessments, privacy screening of fisheries maps, and statistical analyses. Unit areas were originally defined throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Subsequently, several revisions and alternate versions were created by DFO in various regions leading to inconsistencies in spatial extent and naming conventions. These changes have not been formally documented. The datasets often have topological errors such as gaps and overlaps, especially along diagonals and coastlines. In addition, inconsistencies have arisen from conflicting interpretations of the NAFO divisions,…

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