University of Victoria

Purpose

Canada has a thriving seafood industry. Via the Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program (CSSP), data has been accumulated over the past 40 years, across the six coastal provinces, on 14,710 shellfish harvesting sites. This data includes information on fecal coliform bacteria and marine bio toxins that cause shellfish poisonings. This Project involves a collaboration between NRC and the University of Victoria to analyze historical CSSP data using machine learning and artificial intelligence approaches to extract valuable knowledge. The Project aims to apply digital technologies to explore historical patterns and build prediction models of future contamination levels. The goal is to provide protective prediction and strategic monitoring of the shellfish industry to (a) help assess the environmental impact caused by municipal construction projects, climate change, and other human activities, and (b) to generate a toolkit for visualizing historical and geospatial contamination patterns while predicting future contamination levels across Canada.