In June 2024, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) embarked on a 21-day expedition aboard the exploration vessel (E/V) Nautilus, marking the eighth year of partnership between ONC and Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) to service and maintain the North East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments (NEPTUNE) observatory.
If being at sea wasn’t exciting enough, the news of Canada’s newly designated marine protected area (MPA), Tang.ɢ̱wan – ḥačxwiqak – Tsig̱is during the expedition renewed our gratitude and support for the importance of marine protection. Now our Middle Valley and Cascadia Basin sites join Endeavour as part of this enlarged MPA matrix.
Discover the beauty of these sites that have earned them special protection status: from the smoking hydrothermal vents of Endeavour and Middle Valley, to the vast plains of Cascadia Basin, our deepest site at 2.6km.
NEPTUNE provides high-resolution and near real-time observations of the ocean as deep as 2.6km below the surface. The observatory is an over 800km loop of fibre-optic cable, providing power and Internet connectivity to thousands of scientific instruments.
