Building Scallop Habitat

The Petro-Canada-operated Terra Nova oil development on the Grand Banks off Canada’s East Coast is hundreds of kilometers away from Newfoundland’s Placentia Bay, but it’s having a positive impact on fish habitat in the area. Terra Nova is helping to build scallop habitat in the Monkstown/Paradise Sound area as part of the Fish Habitat Compensation Plan.

Petro-Canada identified the area in consultation with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), local fishers, and area residents. Efforts to create scallop habitat on the sea floor there started in 1999.

Petro-Canada and DFO selected the site because young scallops were present, but the habitat was unable to support growth. Fertilized scallop eggs – called spat – move with the currents in the upper surface of the water, but at a certain point in their life cycle they need to settle to the sea floor. If they settle on habitat that supports them, they survive. If not, they die.

Scallop shells were distributed along the sea floor in an area measuring approximately 31,000 m 2 to serve as seed anchors for the young scallops. The first scallop spat was collected from spat collectors placed in the area and deposited on the placed shells.

Results are encouraging. The first monitoring program was completed in 2003, and there is evidence that scallops are settling in the new habitat. Petro-Canada, in consultation with DFO, will continue to monitor the site.