Two revolutionary, interactive seafloor observatories led by the University of Victoria will benefit from more than $2 million in new funding from CANARIE Inc., a national organization that promotes advanced networks and applications.

The NEPTUNE Canada (North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Network Experiments) observatory, will lay 800 km of fibre optic cable and instruments off the outer coast of B.C., starting in 2007.

A sister observatory, VENUS (Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea), will lay 43 km of cable and instruments in two locations off the south coast of B.C. The first 3-km leg of VENUS was installed in Saanich Inlet near Victoria in February.

Both observatories will use the...