Guide to environmental monitoring for tidal energy devices, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia

Purpose

This guide outlines Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO’s) requirements for adaptive environmental effects monitoring programs^{Footnote 1} for tidal energy devices^{Footnote 2} in the Bay of Fundy. It supports the revised staged approach to authorizations under the Fisheries Act and Species at Risk Act. This guide also ensures environmental protection while enabling responsible development.

Regulatory context

DFO is responsible for the conservation and protection of fish and fish habitat, including aquatic species at risk. When projects are likely to present a risk to fish and fish habitat, DFO must consider whether to issue a:

• Fisheries Act authorization and/or
• Species at Risk Act permit

Environmental effects monitoring is a key condition of approval to help validate the predicted effects on fish and fish habitat. Given the uncertainty regarding the impacts of tidal energy devices on fish and fish habitat in the Bay of Fundy, DFO has developed a staged approach to development. This revised approach:

• incorporates adaptive environmental effects monitoring programs
• allows for longer-term authorizations, with phased deployment contingent on monitoring results

Adaptive environmental effects monitoring programs will be included as a condition of a Fisheries Act Authorization, where needed. If monitoring fails or impacts exceed predictions, DFO may amend, suspend, or revoke authorizations.

Guiding principles

Precautionary

Monitoring programs should:

• be designed using the best available information
• consider the scientific uncertainty of impacts and sensitivity of fish species and habitats

Adaptive

Monitoring programs should be designed to detect and respond to results and varying environmental conditions with a goal of detecting fish-turbine interactions.

Proportionality

Monitoring requirements should reflect:

• project scale
• device design
• risk and consequence of fish turbine interaction

Transparency and accountability

Proponents should provide timely, high-quality analysis of data to DFO.

Modelling and risk assessment

Proponents must model how their project could affect key fish species before deployment. This includes considering aquatic species at risk using:

• site-specific conditions
• device design

Monitoring

Spatial coverage

Proponents must monitor fish presence and movement through the turbine’s swept area to assess collision risk. Monitoring outside the swept area is encouraged to understand avoidance behavior.

Temporal coverage

Monitoring must capture diel (day/night), tidal, and seasonal variability. Proponents must model and justify the sampling effort needed to produce statistically robust results.

Monitoring equipment

• Equipment must function on both ebb and flood tides
• Secondary technologies must be used when flows exceed 3 m/s and to validate primary methods
• Remote monitoring of sensor functionality is required at all times

Data management and reporting

• Weekly data checks to confirm equipment functionality and data quality
• First month of data must be analyzed and submitted to DFO within 6 months of deployment
• Monthly summary reports must include:
  • equipment verification logs
  • data collection metrics (for example, duty cycle, tidal stage)
  • progress on analysis and reporting milestones
  • observations of key fish species and marine mammals
  • equipment or software issues
• Proponent must be able to submit raw data when requested by DFO

Contingency planning

Adaptive environmental effects monitoring programs must include contingency measures to address inconclusive data or equipment failure. These must be implemented if monitoring results are insufficient to assess risk. Based on initial results, DFO may require activations of additional measures outlined in these monitoring programs. This is needed to better understand the effects on fish passing through the turbine’s swept area.

Collaboration and support

Proponents are encouraged to engage with:

• Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE), where applicable, to align monitoring plans with best practices
• Indigenous groups early in their project planning, including the development of their monitoring programs
• key stakeholders early in their project planning