Taxa occurrences from dive imagery surveys conducted from 2024 to 2025 in proposed marine conservation network sites in Southwest New Brunswick, Canada

The survey was planned and conducted over complex physical features around challenging conditions of tide, temperature, and visibility. While these characteristics contribute to a diversity of habitat types and species over small geographic areas, they also challenge methods for data gathering and assessment.

A total of 37 habitats at depths ranging from -1.9 (intertidal) to 26.6 m resulted in 665 data records of occurrence for 103 taxa across ten major taxonomic groups. Many of these locations exhibited a mix of shallow and deep bedrock substrate. These host dense kelp in upper sections where light, substrate, and current offer favourable conditions and contrast with deeper more protected refuges for sensitive benthic organisms such as sponges, horse mussels, anemones, a variety of crustaceans, and fishes.