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strait of georgia

Jun 1, 2016

A Tenth Anniversary Inshore Maintenance Cruise

The Canadian Coast Guard Ship John P. Tully in Saanich Inlet.

The Canadian Coast Guard Ship John P. Tully in Saanich Inlet.

Ocean Networks Canada's tenth annual expedition season began on 28 April 2016 with an 8-day cruise to maintain the ocean observing instrumentation and platforms in Saanich Inlet and the Strait of Georgia. The Canadian Coast Guard Ship John P. Tully and the ITB Subsea Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Oceanic Explorer supported the recovery, repair and deployment of seafloor installations and...

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Fraser | fraser delta | ddl | delta dynamics lab | Gwyn Lintern | river delta | strait of georgia | salish sea | venus | SLIP | Seismic Liquefaction In Situ Penetrometer | slumps | slope failure | slope stability | hypoxia | saanich inlet | forensics | pigs | csi | sfu | simon fraser university | gail anderson | decomposition | experiment | oxygen

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Apr 29, 2016

Observing Seasonal Marine Changes with BC Ferries

​

BC Ferries takes a closer look at the 2016 spring bloom in the Strait of Georgia

Every year, March brings two kinds of spring blooms to the temperate British Columbia coast: one involves an annual flower count, which is the envy of the country; the other turns the Salish Sea green with an explosion of marine productivity. BC Ferries plays an important role on both counts, bringing visitors across the Strait of Georgia to enjoy the Island’s blossoms while simultaneously hosting Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) instruments that collect marine data in the Strait of Georgia.

ONC measures ocean properties at the sea surface using advanced instruments installed onboard three ferry routes. The route from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay was instrumented...

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BC Ferries | phytoplankton | spring bloom | Queen of Alberni | strait of georgia | biomass

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Jul 4, 2016

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Jun 1, 2016

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Jul 30, 2015

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Jul 30, 2015

Ocean Networks Canada teams up with BC Ferries to monitor Canada’s busiest waterway
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Dec 3, 2014

Jul 30, 2015

Ocean Networks Canada teams up with BC Ferries to monitor Canada’s busiest waterway

July 30, 2015

NEWS RELEASE

VICTORIA, B.C. — The University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) has expanded its world-class ocean observatories to include data collected from three BC Ferries.

With instrumentation in the ferries’ hull and a weather station on deck, scientists can now observe ocean surface properties continuously while the ferries transit the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

The strait is a vital waterway to understand. Not only is it Canada’s busiest trade route, it’s home to the world’s largest commercial salmon fishery, important habitat for herring to spawn...

Read more

BC Ferries | ferry system | strait of georgia | Queen of Oak Bay | Queen of Alberni | Spirit of Vancouver Island

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ONC now monitors Strait of Georgia with three BC Ferries
Jul 30, 2015

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May 11, 2015

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Dec 3, 2014

Dec 3, 2014

Second BC Ferry Data Now Available

Ocean Networks Canada’s Strait of Georgia ferry monitoring program officially expanded operations to a second ferry, the Spirit of Vancouver Island, in October 2014. This ferry, part of BC Ferries fleet, connects Vancouver Island and the mainland transiting between Victoria, BC, and Vancouver, BC.The main oceanographic interest of this route is that the ferry travels through more saline, oceanic conditions on the western part of the route through to fresher Fraser River influenced waters on the eastern part of the route. The data collected along the way continues the long-term time series initiative established by Dr. Jim Gower (Fisheries and Oceans Canada).

The ferry is instrumented to make high-resolution measurements (...

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BC Ferries | ferry data | VENUS Ferry System | strait of georgia

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Sep 21, 2014

Understanding the Oceans

​Blog post by Dr. Rich Pawlowicz. Originally published on Wiring the Abyss 2014 Expedition portal.

Understanding how the oceans work is hard, because we almost always don't have enough measurements to even know what the ocean is doing, never mind why. One of the exciting things in the VENUS Observatory expansion plan was the installation of a radar system that was specially designed to provide estimates of surface currents over a large region covering the Fraser plume. What's the Fraser plume?

Strait of Georgia Plume.

Fraser...

Read more

strait of georgia | Fraser River | CODAR | Mark Halverson | Rich Pawlowicz

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Apr 29, 2016

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Dec 3, 2014

Apr 30, 2014

Spring Bloom Observed in Ferry Data

The biological transition from winter to spring conditions in the Strait of Georgia is characterized by a spring phytoplankton bloom. Inter-annual timing of this phytoplankton bloom can vary by up to 6 weeks (Collins et al. 2009). This broad time range introduces the potential for a mismatch in the timing of the major annual period of zooplankton productivity in the Strait, which can in turn, influence the productivity of higher trophic levels such as fish and sea birds. Understanding the dominant factors influencing the timing of the bloom is therefore the subject of considerable interest (Collins et al. 2009; Allen & Wolfe 2013; Gower et al. 2013).

...
Read more

phytoplankton | bloom | spring bloom | BC Ferries | Queen of Alberni | strait of georgia | biomass | oxygen

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Mar 7, 2014

Maintaining the VENUS Observatory: March 2014 Expedition

Twice a year, the Ocean Networks Canada engineering and science teams head out to sea to service and maintain our coastal observatory in the Salish Sea.

Just west of the dock at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, the Saanich Inlet array lies in 100 m of water. Operating since 2006, this fjord network was the first comprehensive cabled ocean observatory in the world. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is deployed from the deck of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship, John P. Tully and lowered to the bottom, where it can access and service the instrument suites connected to the network.

Research here includes benthic ecology, plankton dynamics, and monitoring complex seasonal biogeochemical cycles. At each station, VENUS maintains a standard...

Read more

salish sea | strait of georgia | venus | expedition | fraser delta | saanich inlet | Tully | maintenance | forensics

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Aug 15, 2013

Introduction to the Strait of Georgia

A rockfish at ONC's Strait of Georgia observatory.

Strait of Georgia at a Glance:

  • Region: Between southern Vancouver Island and the Fraser River Delta of B.C., in the southern portion of the Strait of Georgia, a major shipping route along the Pacific Northwest coast.
  • Instrument Platforms: 6 (3 at Central node and 3 at East node)
  • Depths:
    • Central node:...
Read more

venus | strait of georgia | Whales | salish sea | Acoustics | BC Ferries | VENUS Ferry System

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Do fish talk? An innovative experiment to study fish using sound and imaging
Apr 26, 2017

Collaborative stewardship for the Pacific coast
Mar 2, 2017

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Monitoring Saanich Inlet and the Strait of Georgia: Fall inshore expedition (2016)
Oct 31, 2016

Aug 6, 2013

Fraser River Plume

​

Photograph of the plume edge in summer (photo credit: Kevin Bartlett).

The Fraser River reaches the ocean near Vancouver,...

Read more

coastal radar | CODAR | Fraser River | strait of georgia | Freshet

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Apr 24, 2017

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Jun 1, 2016

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Apr 29, 2016

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May 10, 2013

Tully Leg 1 Summary: Apr-May 2013

Today marked the end of Leg 1 - servicing installations in the Salish Sea - wrapped up after a successful 10 days of operations. At 09:00 the newly arrived leg 2 crew stood in the sun on dock with the happy, but tired, leg 1 crew. We began loading our gear and instruments right away with the ship's crane and finished at 14:00. It took us until evening to rearrange it like a giant block puzzle and tie it all down. All those hours playing TETRIS finally paid off.

The CanPac ROV Team spent the day conducting maintenance on the Remotely Operated Vehicle and working through the various tooling required for leg 2.

...

Read more

expedition | Tully | rov | oceanic explorer | venus | satellite | saanich inlet | strait of georgia | fraser delta | ddl | delta dynamics lab | surveys

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