On a July morning, Ocean Network Canada staff met with high-achieving students from across Canada as part of a PEEL Summer Academy program hosted at the University of Victoria. Ocean Networks Canada’s Natasha Ewing and Tom Dakin were invited to introduce ocean observatory science and technology to twenty students who are of grade nine age, but working at a university level. The students—many from the Ontario region— were taking part in a two-week West Coast Marine Discovery Camp, which included time to absorb the sites around Victoria while learning about first nations culture and some of the ocean-related programs offered at UVic and Pearson College.

​

So far, the many citizen scientists helping us with our archive containing thousands of hours of video has been a great success! Digital Fishers has enabled hundreds of people, with a variety of experience levels, to participate in ocean science research. The video collected by Ocean Networks Canada during installation dives and from underwater cameras installed across the network is being reviewed by scientists and citizen scientists alike, helping us annotate data from the deep sea. You can annotate, or describe, the various objects and animals you see by selecting from the fields on the screen. Categories to describe include sea life, water clarity, seafloor composition, and any other objects you see (natural or human made).

Bloodybelly comb jellies, sea pigs, deep sea spiders—real images and video of these and over 125 other little-known inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean can now be viewed on an iPad. The Marine Life Field Guide, published by the University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada, is the first interactive visual reference to species of the deep sea for tablet computers.

Verena Tunnicliffe, (former) Director of VENUS, and Tom Pedersen of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, gave a public presentation called "Insulting the World's Oceans" as part of the UVic IdeaFest on 5 March 2012.

Ocean Networks Canada is pleased to announce the Observatory’s participation in one of the most widely recognized global science events, attended by several thousand of the world’s leading scientists and engineers and covered by top scientific journalists. The American Association for Advance of Science (AAAS) 2012 Annual Meeting is taking place this year from February 16-20 at Vancouver’s Convention Centre—the first time outside the United States since 1981.