The west coast of North America is at risk of a major earthquake. An early warning alert of up to 90 seconds could save lives and protect infrastructure. In February 2016 Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) received funding from Emergency Management British Columbia (EMBC) to install the technology that will deliver a system for earthquake early warning for southern British Columbia by 2019.

The potential for earthquakes in British Columbia

• British Columbia is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an active seismic region. Thousands of earthquakes are recorded annually by seismic sensors across the province.  
• Many earthquakes occur near the Cascadia subduction zone, where the Juan de Fuca and North American tectonic plates converge....

False killer whales are very social and gregarious. They live in small groups of 10 to 20 individuals, which are part of larger groups of 100 or more. They are often seen with other cetacean species, especially bottlenose dolphins. False killer whales and Atlantic bottlenose dolphins are very closely related, and can produce fertile offspring together. False killer whales prefer tropical to temperate water deeper than 1000m. They eat squid and large fish, such as mahi mahi or large salmon, and they share their food with one another. They have even been known to offer food to human boaters, snorkelers and divers.

At up to 5.96m long, male false killer whales are larger than their 5m long female counterparts. They can weigh up to 1360kg, and have a maximum lifespan of 63 years....

River deltas are known for their dynamic nature. Most of the rivers naturally carry silt that eventually enters the ocean and settles at the bottom, continuously changing the shape of the seabed. Seasonal events, such as freshets - when glaciers’ snowmelt enters the river stream - are the time when the seafloor at deltas can change rapidly causing events called “slope failures” or “subsea landslides”.  Fraser River delta is one such location where subsea landslides occur regularly, in particular during the spring freshet season (May-June). Natural Resources Canada leads several research programs studying seafloor processes and conducts regular surveys of the delta area. 

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Humpback whales can grow to be up to 16 m long and weigh an average of 36,000 kg. They have unusually long pectoral fins that are nearly 1/3 of their body length, giving them their scientific name Megaptera novaeangliae, meaning “big wing of New England.” Their pectoral fins and the undersides of their tail flukes can be all black, all white or any combination of the two. Individuals can be identified by these colouration patterns, which are as unique as a human finger print. Despite their large size, they are known to be acrobatic, occasionally breaching and slapping their fins on the water’s surface, They live in most oceans, undergoing yearly migrations of up to 8,300 km from their breeding and calving areas in tropical and subtropical waters to the nutrient rich polar...