Fishery-independent trawl surveys conducted by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans Maritimes Region (DFO) and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NOAA NEFSC) have broad spatial overlap and similar sampling objectives.
WGNAEOs Terms of Reference are closely aligned with a number of the observation and exploration priorities described in ICES Science Plan.
a) Coordinating US and
Canadian resource and
ecosystem survey
strategies for enhanced
regional evaluation in
the Northwest Atlantic.
b) Coordinating and
developing access,
metadata, and methods
for integrating
historical Canadian and
U.S. trawl survey data
to facilitate scientific
analyses.
c) Collating and reviewing
ocean observations
collected in the
Northwest Atlantic
Ocean and conducting gap
analyses to inform
integrated ecosystem
assessments and
ecosystem science
activities.
WGNAEO has a close working relationship with the Working Group on the Northwest Atlantic Regional Sea (WGNARS). WGNAEO will also develop connections with the Working Group on Oceanic Hydrography (WGOH) and other groups in the Ecosystem Observation Steering Group (EOSG).