Draft Agenda for planned August 2003 meeting
The reconstituted Working Group is planning  a 1 day meeting during the week of August 25th in St. Andrews.  Final date is not set, and is dependant on participants' availability.

Below are some preliminary suggestions for the AGENDA for this first meeting:

1. Review our specific research involvements and other networks which relate to this WG concept
2. Review and agree on broad working group objectives
3. Define some specific objectives and timelines
4. Decide on a notice to send to the BOFEP membership outlining the WG focus and inviting other interest.
5. Decide on allocation of initial working group budget.

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A meeting of the BOFEP - Sublittoral Ecology and Habitat Conservation Working Group was held at the Conference Centre, Biological Station in St. Andrews on August 26, 2003.
Present were: Maria-Ines Buzeta, Mark Costello, Peter Lawton, Art MacKay, Gerhard Pohle, Robert Rangeley, Shawn Robinson and Rabindra Singh. Regrets: John Roff and Allan Logan.

• crustacean ecology (lobster and crabs)
• marine geology
• marine protected areas
• benthic habitat mapping
• benthic ecology and benthic community ecology
• benthic community structure
• temporal changes in benthic communities
• classification of biologically distinct areas
• definition of critical areas
• systematic identification of priority areas for protection
• small scale characterization of benthic hard bottom habitats and communities
• shellfish ecology (clams, scallops, mussels, and urchins)
• enhancement and dynamics of early life history processes of invertebrates
• aquaculture and climate change impacts on the benthos
• general ecology of the Passamaquoddy Bay and West Isles
• long-term health of the St. Croix Estuary
• marine biogeography
• distribution of species, species assemblages, and biodiversity.

The major aims of this meeting were to achieve a consensus on the Terms of Reference, to prepare an update for the BOFEP web site, and to prepare an information brief to inform BOFEP membership about this working group, thereby encouraging input and broader participation.

Ideas discussed:

Rationale for setting up this working group/aims and goals: This group is being organized under the BOFEP setting because it provides the opportunity to do something at a more detailed level than that of regional initiatives being pursued by other working groups and organizations. The group will give balance to BOFEP since many of the present working groups are focussed on the intertidal areas in the Upper Bay of Fundy. It is necessary to have a holistic view of the sublittoral area for zoning and mapping and this working group is a good "platform/venue" for organizing this framework for knowledge. One of the ways to achieve this would be to review what has been mapped and identify high priority areas for mapping. Recognizing that some areas are already being used for specific purposes, zoning will help to identify areas good for other uses as well. The group aims to provide a means of disseminating information on sublittoral ecology and habitat conservation in the Outer Bay of Fundy to decision-makers, other researchers and the public. This will be achieved through the development of a "platform" that will help define areas that are of high ecological and conservation value using a systematic method for the synthesis of relevant data and information. Such a process will, at the same time, help identify priority areas, and geographic gaps in data and knowledge that can be addressed by members of the group or under other on-going initiatives. There would, therefore, be links to several other initiatives including:

• Applied Coastal Ecosystem Studies (ACES), the interdisciplinary project at the Biological Station
• The Census of Marine Life
• The Centre for Marine Biodiversity (CBM)
• The Marine Invertebrate Diversity Initiative
• Federal and provincial initiatives focusing in the Southwest NB area (including the St. Croix Estuary Project and Eastern Charlotte Waterways)

• Any future opportunities for looking at recovery after aquaculture.

The Terms of Reference:

• The geographic focus will be the Outer Bay of Fundy.
• The group will initially focus on benthic habitats.
• The overall theme for the group will be to provide Science contributions for Integrated Management of the outer Bay of Fundy. For this purpose, the group would look at:

• the approaches and methodology for indicating areas of high ecological value,
• integration of data sources and knowledge,
• coordination of ongoing and new activities within these themes

Target audience: includes the rest of the BOFEP groups and the public with the aim of building awareness and involving communities. The products can be used by coastal and ocean mangers to aid in development of coastal and ocean policies and management initiatives.

Target areas: includes the West Isles/Quoddy region because it has a history of research and it is a highly productive and complex area. It is, however, recognized that the West Isles is a smaller system ("ecotone") within the larger ecosystem. Even though there is lot of information about this and other nearby areas, there has been no systematic method or synthesis of information to help define areas that are of high ecological and conservation value. In order to accomplish this, there is need to be focussed on small scale because most previous work has been large scale. It was agreed that while the geographic area for this working group covers the entire Outer Bay of Fundy, initially the focus would be Southwest Brunswick. Eventually the area could be expanded as more data and knowledge is gained, to include the entire Gulf of Maine.

Report to 2008 AGM

Through a variety of funding sources, there has been a considerable increase in research capacities to undertake benthic ecological work in the outer Bay of Fundy/SWNB area. Many of these initiatives are linked to the goals of the WG: the new seabed mapping by Natural Resources Canada and the UNB Ocean Mapping Group have added considerable areal coverages in the past two years; the Centre for Marine Biodiversity (led by Peter Lawton, Director, CMB) is conducting synthesis work on coastal, benthic and demersal communities; a new NaGISA biodiversity survey initiative (G. Pohle) was established in Cobscook Bay and Simpson’s Island; and there are several additional ongoing biological and oceanographic surveys within the Head Harbour area. The following summarizes some of these initiatives.

We have been to map species assemblages, persistent features, factors, and processes in Southwest New Brunswick, for use in habitat and biodiversity conservation. This work has produced GIS layers of information, statistical analyses, reports, and images and videos that have assisted in identifying, explaining, and visualizing, areas of high ecological or biological significance. The two work components listed below are within this general work plan. These are listed in order of priority. The first funding priority (NaGISA), is a time series and the most threatened by lack of funding.

(1) NaGISA near-shore biodiversity survey work (Birch Island in Cobscook Bay, and Simpson’s Island in Head Harbour). Data from high intertidal to 10m will contribute to a global analysis of species diversity, as well as one to compare and contrast the two sites within the next two years. These two study sites were surveyed in 2007 & 2008. However, funding to complete this first phase (the 3^rd year of field data), has been greatly diminished, compromising the overall work. BoFEP funds would be used to cover field work costs for the 2009 survey.

(2)Relationship between hard bottom benthic species and oceanographic and structural factors and processes. Previous work collated existing data (provided by A. MacKay) or gathered new data (Lawton, Strong, Roff, Greenlaw, Losier) to look at factors that are more or less persistent, building toward a model of species assemblages and species richness, that would statistically predict assemblages and richness according to those conditions. So far, the work has looked at geographic and hydrographic conditions. Results showed that there is a significant effect of those factors on species richness. This work can now be further developed by addition of measures now available: current velocity obtained directly by ADCP recorders and indirectly by modelling (Page and Losier); and benthic topographic complexity obtained from multibeam data (Hughes-Clark, Greenlaw). Additionally, new biological data may become available for analyses (MacKay) and could be supported by any additional BoFEP funds available to the WG.

Much of the new research conclusions and data compilations have general utility for addressing a variety of issues of interest, and BoFEP's distribution channels can very effectively get the word out on these to the broader community around the Bay. We plan to develop an updated poster and/or brochure, branded by BoFEP that would mention several of these recent initiatives (acknowledging the various sources as well as BoFEP’s support of the WG). These outreach products would be disseminated at the next BOF Science workshop (May 2009), as well as at the Gulf of Maine Science Symposium (Oct 2009).