Comprehensive demographic dataset for Cape Breton Island, NS, CA including population statistics, household income, housing units, education levels, employment data, and transportation with year-over-year changes.

Ages chart illustrates the age and gender trends across all age and gender groupings. A chart where the the covered area is primarily on the right describes a very young population while a chart where the the covered area is primarily on the left illustrates an aging population.

2016 Census of Population Aggregate Dissemination Area (ADA) maps and Dissemination Area (DA) maps for Cape Breton, Nova Scotia [222 PDF files].

The number of visitors to Cape Breton Highlands National Park amounted to ******* in the fiscal year 2024/25. This represented an increase over the previous year's figure, which stood at over *******.

What? An aerial wildlife population survey is used in Cape Breton Highlands National Park to estimate moose (Alces alces) population density. When? Monitoring frequency for this measure occurs every two to three years. Surveys take place in early March when there is snowpack present, the weather is stable, and sightability is increased by sun angle and day length. How? The population survey uses a random stratified design. The study area is Cape Breton Highlands National Park (950km2) and is divided up into Survey Units (SU’s) or “blocks”. Survey units are numbered sequentially in rows running from west to east, beginning in the north. Stratification lines are flown along transects running through the center point of each survey unit, and cluster analysis is used to assign all survey units a moose density stratum: High, Medium or Low. Survey units are randomly selected from each stratum to be flown in the block survey. 50 survey units are initially selected (35 Low, 10 Medium, 5 High), with more survey units added as necessary to obtain a population estimate with a 90% confidence interval. Why? Moose are the top herbivore in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Benefiting from favourable conditions following a spruce budworm outbreak and, having no significant natural predators, the moose population has become hyperabundant, resulting in negative impacts to the parks forest ecosystem. This survey every helps to monitor changes in moose density in the park, and determine if it is at a sustainable level (ie. within the natural range of variability observed in predator controlled populations).

What? An aerial wildlife population survey is used in Cape Breton Highlands National Park to estimate moose (Alces alces) population density. When? Monitoring frequency for this measure occurs every two to three years. Surveys take place in early March when there is snowpack present, the weather is stable, and sightability is increased by sun angle and day length. How? The population survey uses a random stratified design. The study area is Cape Breton Highlands National Park (950km2) and is divided up into Survey Units (SU’s) or “blocks”. Survey units are numbered sequentially in rows running from west to east, beginning in the north. Stratification lines are flown along transects running through the center point of each survey unit, and cluster analysis is used to assign all survey units a moose density stratum: High, Medium or Low. Survey units are randomly selected from each stratum to be flown in the block survey. 50 survey units are initially selected (35 Low, 10 Medium, 5 High), with more survey units added as necessary to obtain a population estimate with a 90% confidence interval. Why? Moose are the top herbivore in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Benefiting from favourable conditions following a spruce budworm outbreak and, having no significant natural predators, the moose population has become hyperabundant, resulting in negative impacts to the parks forest ecosystem. This survey every helps to monitor changes in moose density in the park, and determine if it is at a sustainable level (ie. within the natural range of variability observed in predator controlled populations).

What? Adult Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) populations are being monitored in the Clyburn River in Cape Breton Highlands National Park during the fall salmon run. When? Monitoring frequency is annually during the adult Atlantic salmon fall run in the Clyburn River. How? Approximately eight kilometers of the Clyburn River is snorkel surveyed in two sections (approximately four kilometers each) to record species, numbers, age class and locations of salmonid species in the river during the survey. A survey of the entire river occurs within a 24 hour period by two to three field teams consecutively. Why? Fish populations are prominent components of aquatic ecosystems and a key node in the aquatic food web. Fish are sensitive to many forms of physical, chemical and biological stressors which alter fish condition, community structure and/or biomass. In addition to the indirect impacts human activities have on fish communities, there are direct impacts associated with harvesting sport fish such as Atlantic salmon from rivers. The Eastern Cape Breton Atlantic salmon population is listed by COSEWIC as Endangered and the status of the population is under review by SARA. Adult salmon populations in are important resources to monitor from the perspective of resource management.

What? Forest Health plots in the Boreal and Acadian land regions are being monitored in Cape Breton Highlands National Park to determine if any historical changes are occurring. When? Monitoring frequency for this program occurs on a five year cycle within the Acadian and Boreal Forest regions; sampling typically occurs in July or August. How? Cape Breton Highlands National Park follows an Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) tree health monitoring protocol. It was developed by the Canadian Forest Service to assess species composition, growth rates, crown conditions and stem defects in an attempt to recognize changes in tree health in Canadian forests. Data in a defined sample plot is collected on the forest species contained within. General data is collected on: tree species; tree age; tree diameters; tree disturbance; and canopy cover to assess general stand health. Why? Forest health trends are being monitored in the Boreal and Acadian forest after some fairly significant historic disturbances. With a spruce budworm outbreak in the early 1980’s and a moose population outbreak that followed, the Acadian and Boreal forests in Cape Breton Highlands National Park have faced some drastic regeneration/composition changes. The forests ecosystems in the park, which contain some a significant portion of remaining old growth forest in Nova Scotia, are showing signs of impaired regeneration.

This is the OBIS extraction of the Ocean Tracking Network and Dalhousie University (DAL) Cape Breton Highlands National Park salmon tracking, consisting of the release tagging metadata, i.e. the location and date when the tagged animal was released, and summarized detection events of tagged individuals. If readers are interested in the source dataset they may also inquire with the project PIs as listed here or on the OTN web site (https://members.oceantrack.org/project?ccode=V2LCBHNP). Abstract:Healthy, sustainable Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) stocks are important economically, ecologically, and culturally to Canada. However, many populations have been severely decreasing since the 1980s, leading to an endangered listing for many populations by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). This is particularly evident in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where many rivers are classified as endangered. Parks Canada has been monitoring the adult salmon population on Clyburn Brook in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park for over 30 years and has documented a steep decline by over 95% since 1991. We will collaborate with Parks Canada to examine the temporal pattern of this decline and whether it matches that in other rivers from the region. Specifically, the aim of this research is to quantify the efficacy of smolt-to-adult supplementation in the Clyburn River, where salmon have collapsed to near local extirpation. Over the last few years, smolt-to-adult supplementation has been used as an emergency recovery strategy, where wild juvenile salmon from the Clyburn are transported to Dalhousie University where they are grown to adults. The adults are then returned to the river. However, no formal assessment of the survival, behaviour and reproductive effort of these salmon has been conducted. Using acoustic telemetry we will monitor the behaviour and survivorship of the supplemented salmon, and compare their behaviour to that of wild individuals from another local river, Cheticamp. This assessment will allow us to quantify the movement behaviours both within river and at sea, and the phenology of spawning. Ultimately, we will use the data that we collect from these studies to develop models that examine the degree to natural behaviour and survivorship that supplemented salmon exhibit relative to wild counterparts. These issues are of paramount importance to Parks Canada, as well as other stakeholders like Mi'kmaq conservation groups, local angling groups, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Atlantic Salmon Federation and others, especially since the Species at Risk Act stipulates that recovery strategies must be developed and employed.

Most of Cape Breton, NS's workforce is working in Sales and service with 15545 people or 26.88% of the community's workforce. This category contains retail and wholesale sales occupations and customer and personal service occupations related to a wide range of industries, such as accommodation and food services, travel, tourism and cleaning services. Sales and service occupations can be linked, for the most part, to formal post-secondary or occupation-specific training programs. Others are characterized by periods of formal on-the-job training. Apprenticeship training is available for some specialized service occupations. Progression from sales and service occupations to positions of increased responsibility, or supervision, usually requires occupational experience and may require completion of related training programs. The second largest is those in Trades, transport and equipment operators, comprising 16.69% of locals. The third largest group are those in Business, finance and administration, whose 7225 employees are from Cape Breton, NS.

Striped Bass, Morone saxatilis (Walbaum, 1792), is an anadromous fish species that supports fisheries throughout North America and is native to the North American Atlantic Coast. Due to long coastal migrations that span multiple jurisdictions, a detailed understanding of population genomics is required to untangle demographic patterns, understand local adaptation, and characterize population movements. This study used 1256 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci to investigate genetic structure of 477 Striped Bass sampled from 15 locations spanning the North American Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada to the Cape Fear River, United States (US). We found striking differences in neutral divergence among Canadian sites, which were isolated from each other and US populations, compared with US populations that were much less isolated. Our SNP dataset was able to assign 99% of Striped Bass back to six reporting groups, a 39% improvement over previous genetic markers. Using this method, we found (1) evidence of admixture within Saint John River, indicating that migrants from the US and from Shubenacadie River occasionally spawn in the Saint John River; (2) Striped Bass collected in the Mira River, Cape Breton, Canada were found to be of both Miramichi River and US origin ; (3) juveniles in the newly restored Kennebec River population had small and nonsignificant differences from the Hudson River; and (4) tributaries within the Chesapeake Bay showed a mixture of homogeny and small differences among each other. This study introduces new hypotheses about the dynamic zoogeography of Striped Bass at its northern range and has important implications for the local and international management of this species.

θ is effective population size (θ = 4Nμ) for first (θ1) and second (θ2) populations in the model and their ancestral population (θA); migration rates m1→2/μ and m2→1/μ are from first to second and second to first population in the model, respectively; divergence time is converted to thousands years (ka) using mutation rates of 2 and 4% per Ma. Values in parentheses represent 90% HPD confidence intervals for each parameter (see Table S3 for probability analysis of significant differences between parameters).Groups of populations are as following (see map in Fig. 1):NEA – Northeast Atlantic; ISL - Northeast Atlantic islands; NWA – Northwest Atlantic; NEA(S) includes NEA sites grouped in SAMOVA with North Atlantic islands (Ireland-1, Norway, Barents Sea, White Sea, Sweden-2, Germany, Belgium and France); NWA(S) includes NWA populations grouped in SAMOVA with North Atlantic islands (Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland); NEA(MAIN) includes mainland sites in Europe; BI includes all British Isles sites; CAN includes all Maritime Canada sites; USSOUTH includes southern US sites below 43°N; EUROPE(S) includes European sites (British Isles and Sweden) that formed a group with Venice in SAMOVA analyses; SPAIN is the site in Galicia; VENICE is the Venetian lagoon site.

What? Forest Health plots in the Boreal and Acadian land regions are being monitored in Cape Breton Highlands National Park to determine if any historical changes are occurring. When? Monitoring frequency for this program occurs on a five year cycle within the Acadian and Boreal Forest regions; sampling typically occurs in July or August. How? Cape Breton Highlands National Park follows an Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Network (EMAN) tree health monitoring protocol. It was developed by the Canadian Forest Service to assess species composition, growth rates, crown conditions and stem defects in an attempt to recognize changes in tree health in Canadian forests. Data in a defined sample plot is collected on the forest species contained within. General data is collected on: tree species; tree age; tree diameters; tree disturbance; and canopy cover to assess general stand health. Why? Forest health trends are being monitored in the Boreal and Acadian forest after some fairly significant historic disturbances. With a spruce budworm outbreak in the early 1980’s and a moose population outbreak that followed, the Acadian and Boreal forests in Cape Breton Highlands National Park have faced some drastic regeneration/composition changes. The forests ecosystems in the park, which contain some a significant portion of remaining old growth forest in Nova Scotia, are showing signs of impaired regeneration.

Contained within the 1st Edition (1906) of the Atlas of Canada is a plate that shows two maps. The first map that shows origins of the people in Maritime provinces and Eastern Quebec, circa 1901. The second map that shows origins of the people in Quebec and Ontario, circa 1901.A varying number of ethnic groups are shown, but mainly: English, Scotch [Scottish], Irish, French and German. People of British origin predominate all provinces, except Quebec, where the French predominated. The French also predominate in adjacent portions of Quebec, such as portions of eastern Ontario, northern New Brunswick, southwestern Nova Scotia, and in the southern portion of Cape Breton. In two small areas near Halifax, N.S., the map indicates descendants of deported persons from Jamaica. The Germans were principally descendants of United Empire Loyalists predominating portions of southern Nova Scotia, Waterlook, Lincoln and Welland counties. Communities with a population greater than 5000 people are shown as proportional dots on the map. In addition, major railway systems displayed.

Quoi? Un relevé aérien de la population faunique est utilisé au parc national des Hautes-Terres-du-Cap-Breton pour évaluer la densité de la population d’orignaux (Alces alces). Quand? Cette mesure fait l’objet d’un suivi tous les deux ou trois ans. Les relevés sont effectués au début du mois de mars, lorsque le manteau neigeux est présent, que le temps est stable et la visibilité accrue par l’angle solaire et la durée du jour. Comment? Les relevés de population utilisent un plan stratifié aléatoire. La zone d’étude est le parc national des Hautes-Terres-du-Cap-Breton (950 km2) et elle est subdivisée en unités d’échantillonnage (UE) ou « blocs ». Les unités d’échantillonnage sont numérotées séquentiellement en rangées allant d’ouest en est, en commençant par le nord. Les lignes de stratification se déploient le long des transects qui traversent le point central de chaque unité d’échantillonnage, et l’on a recours à l’analyse typologique pour attribuer à toutes les unités d’échantillonnage une strate de densité de l’orignal : élevée, moyenne ou faible. Les unités d’échantillonnage sont choisies au hasard dans chaque strate qui doit être utilisée dans l’échantillonage des blocs. On choisit d’abord 50 unités d’échantillonnage (35 à faible densité, 10 à intensité moyenne et 5 à densité élevée) en ajoutant au besoin d’autres unités d’échantillonnage pour obtenir une évaluation de la population avec un intervalle de confiance de 90 %. Pourquoi? Les orignaux sont les plus gros herbivores du parc national des Hautes-Terres-du-Cap-Breton. Bénéficiant de conditions favorables à la suite d’une éclosion de la tordeuse des bourgeons de l’épinette et, n’ayant aucun prédateur nature d’importance, la population d’orignaux est devenue hyperabondante, ce qui a eu des répercussions négatives sur l’écosystème forestier du parc. Ce relevé aide à surveiller les changements de densité de la population d’orignaux dans le parc et détermine si celle-ci se trouve à un niveau viable (c.-à-d. dans la gamme naturelle de variabilité observée dans les populations controlées par les prédateurs).

What? Owl abundance is being monitored in the Acadian land regions of Cape Breton Highlands National Park to determine if occupancy rates are changing or have changed historically. When? Monitoring frequency occurs annually in the spring of each year for the survey routes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Surveys must be completed by early June in the Highlands and are scheduled as close as possible to the full moon in that quarter. Nocturnal surveys are completed on a night when winds are calm and there is no precipitation. How? Field surveys are completed using an automated audio call back player with boreal and barred owl calls, and incorporated timed listening periods. Survey routes consist of 10 evenly spaced stops approximately 1.6 kilometers apart along the route. Owl species heard and seen during each interval at each stop on the route are recorded. Why? Bird populations are useful indicators of forest health, and owl populations (more specifically Barred Owl (Strix varia) populations) are being used in Cape Breton Highlands National Park as a primary indicator of tolerant hardwood forest health.

Quoi? Les populations de saumons atlantiques adultes (Salmo salar) font l’objet d’une surveillance dans la rivière Clyburn du parc national des Hautes-Terres-du-Cap-Breton, pendant la migration automnale des saumons. Quand? Les suivis ont lieu une fois par année, pendant la migration automnale des saumons adultes dans la rivière Clyburn. Comment? Environ huit kilomètres de la rivière Clyburn, répartis en deux sections d’environ quatre kilomètres, font l’objet de relevés effectués en apnée. Cela permet d’enregistrer les espèces, leur nombre, les classes d’âge et l’emplacement des espèces de salmonidés présentes dans la rivière pendant la réalisation des rélevés. Un relevé de la rivière dans son ensemble est effectué sur une période de 24 heures grâce au travail consécutif de deux à trois équipes de terrain. Pourquoi? Les populations de poissons sont des composantes importantes des écosystèmes aquatiques; elles jouent un rôle clé dans le réseau trophique aquatique. Les poissons sont sensibles à de nombreuses formes de facteurs de stress physiques, chimiques et biologiques qui modifient les conditions de vie, la structure de la communauté et/ou la biomasse des poissons. En plus des impacts indirects des humains, les communautés de poissons subissent les impacts directs associés à la pratique de la pêche sportive de poissons tels que le saumon atlantique des rivières. La population de saumons atlantiques de l’est du Cap-Breton est inscrite par le COSEPAC dans la catégorie « en voie de disparition » et la LEP procède actuellement à l’examen du statut de cette population. Les populations de saumons adultes sont des ressources importantes à surveiller du point de vue de la gestion des ressources.