Ocean Networks Canada

Ocean Networks Canada
Established2007 (2007)
PresidentKate Moran
Staff150 Approx.
Location
Victoria, BC
,
Canada
Websitewww.oceannetworks.ca www.uvic.ca

Ocean Networks Canada is a world-leading research and ocean observing facility hosted and owned by the University of Victoria, and managed by the not-for profit ONC Society. ONC operates unparalleled observatories in the deep ocean and coastal waters of Canada’s three coasts–the Arctic, the Pacific and the Atlantic–gathering biological, chemical, geological and physical data to drive solutions for science, industry and society. ONC operates the NEPTUNE and VENUS cabled ocean observatories in the northeast Pacific Ocean and the Salish Sea. Additionally, Ocean Networks Canada operates smaller community-based observatories offshore from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.,[1] Campbell River, Kitamaat Village and Digby Island. These observatories collect data on physical, chemical, biological, and geological aspects of the ocean over long time periods. As with other ocean observatories such as ESONET, Ocean Observatories Initiative, MACHO and DONET, scientific instruments connected to Ocean Networks Canada are operated remotely and provide continuous streams of freely available data to researchers and the public.[citation needed] Over 200 gigabytes of data are collected every day.[2]

The VENUS Observatory is situated at three main sites in the Salish Sea, including Saanich Inlet (depth 100 m), the eastern and central Strait of Georgia (depths 170–300 m), and the Fraser River delta.

The NEPTUNE observatory is situated off the west coast of Vancouver Island in Barkley Sound, along the Cascadia subduction zone, on the Cascadia Basin abyssal plain, and on the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge.[3]

Altogether, the system includes 3 observatories, 5 shore stations, 850+ km of seafloor backbone cables, 11 instrumented sites, 32 instrument platforms, 6 mobile instrument platforms, 400+ instruments and over 2000 scientific sensors deployed.[4]

Scientific topics of study that are enabled by data from these observatories include Arctic oceanography,[5] deep-sea biodiversity,[6] marine ecosystem function,[7] marine forensics,[8] gas hydrates,[9] hydrothermal vents,[10] marine mammals,[11] sediment[12] and benthic[13] dynamics and tsunami[14] studies.

  1. ^ Juniper and McLean, 2014
  2. ^ Dewey et al, 2013
  3. ^ Barnes et al, 2011
  4. ^ Heesemann et al, 2013
  5. ^ Juniper and McLean, 2014
  6. ^ Matabos et al, 2013
  7. ^ Wang and Pawlowicz, 22014
  8. ^ Anderson 2010
  9. ^ Riedel and Willoughby, 2010
  10. ^ Bemis et al, 2012
  11. ^ André et al, 2011
  12. ^ Katz et al, 2012
  13. ^ Robert et al, 2012
  14. ^ Fine et al, 2013