The ocean is vital to British Columbia's economy

Ocean-oriented activities in British Columbia account for eight per cent of B.C.'s jobs and seven per cent of the province’s GDP. Ocean sector revenues and government/not-for-profit ocean-oriented expenditures in B.C. represent  $11.6 billion annually.  Corresponding direct economic impacts included $5.76 billion in GDP, $4.2 billion in wages, salaries and benefits, and over 80,000 person-years of employment FTEs.

A world-leading asset for the province

The University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) manages the VENUS and NEPTUNE Canada cabled ocean networks as a world-leading ocean observatory, providing global access to continuous sea...

Tides are a result of the gravitational attraction of the Moon and Sun on the Earth and ocean.

Tidal forces are a result of small gradients in the gravitational field. Tidal dynamics can be viewed in two reference frames: a non-inertial (accelerating) rotating frame relative to the center of mass of either the Earth-Moon or Earth-Sun systems, or the inertial non-rotating frame of reference (i.e. fixed with respect to the stars).

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In the Earth-centric non-inertial reference frame, the net tidal forces can, for interpretation purposes, be divided into two parts; the gravitational...

Life is usually thought to be driven by energy from the sun. The deep ocean is devoid of sunlight, yet life persists. While most of the abyss relies on photosynthetic surface productivity, hydrothermal vent communities use a different energy pathway, relying on a process called chemosynthesis. Specialized chemoautotrophic bacteria oxidize inorganic molecules contained in hydrothermal vent effluent and use the released energy to produce organic matter (carbohydrates) from dissolved CO2.

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