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Ocean Networks Canada was very active at this fall’s MTS/IEEE Oceans meeting held in sunny San Diego, California, from 23 to 26 September.

Our month-long cruise to study low-oxygen zones in the Salish Sea and coastal waters off Vancouver Island has come to an end. The R/V Falkor docked in Victoria at Ogden Point Wednesday September 18 for demobilization. As our science and support teams regain their land legs, the Falkor is heading south to study an underwater volcano off the Oregon coast.

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Our Oceannetworks.ca website has a new look, with the launch of our new brand and streamlined website. The new site includes content from our previous oceannetworks.ca, onccee.ca, VENUS and NEPTUNE websites. The former oceannetworks.ca and onccee.ca websites have now been taken offline, while the VENUS and NEPTUNE sites will remain online for a while longer. Eventually, all sites and data access facilities will be merged under oceannetworks.ca.

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The University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is off to China to lead a 12-day ocean technology trade mission, with support provided by the government of British Columbia.

The ONC Innovation Centre will join a number of other BC organizations in showcasing the province’s leading edge ocean science and technology sector.

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The Fraser River reaches the ocean near Vancouver, and there the fresh water it carries mixes with ocean water to form a thin plume of buoyant brackish water, which according to one oceanographer is the “showpiece of the Strait of Georgia.” Oceanographers have been studying the Fraser River plume since at least the 1960s, but more recently, VENUS has installed a radar system to measure the surface currents in this region.

Passive acoustic monitoring of marine mammals is a growing research theme on both the VENUS and NEPTUNE observatories. Universit of Victoria Co-op student Kristen Kanes works with the Ocean Networks Canada Innovation Centre (formerly Centre for Enterprise and Engagement, ONCCEE) to process passive acoustic data from their technology demonstrations. Together with John Dorocicz, Acoustic Systems Developer, the two “listeners” publicize the highlights from these data within relevant research communities. 

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16-17 July 2013 we are performing maintenance work at Folger Pinnacle, with the assistance of the Pelagic dive team and the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre.

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We are back in the office after nearly 3 weeks at sea aboard the University of Washington’s R/V Thompson. The team followed the Operations Plan that was set out over the last 6 months and achieved most of the planned goals. The weather co-operated perfectly for dive operations, resulting in no weather downtime. 

This afternoon, we finished the last tasks on the NEPTUNE Canada portion of the Ocean Networks Canada Installation and maintenance cruise. We are on the long transit back to Saanich Inlet to continue the last 2 days of work on the VENUS network. 

After several months of “silence”, our instruments in the Strait of Georgia are alive again, with data streaming into the database, and out to users via the website.

On 12 January 2013 Kirill was watching the video feed from our Pod 4 camera in Barkley Canyon (depth: 894 m) and noticed a hagfish moving around on the sediment below the camera, when something unusual happened.

"Who could ask for a better 12 years?? I am leaving VENUS with such a wealth of memories, experiences, new knowledge and cakes consumed..."

-Verena Tunnicliffe, VENUS Director (2001-2012) changes perspectives and says goodbye to VENUS.

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With the New Year just beginning, the VENUS observatory continues its Phase II expansion with the testing of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in Saanich Inlet.

A joint team of VENUS and UVic/Ocean Technology Lab engineers tested a winch system on the Ocean Technology Test Bed (OTTB) Buoy in Saanich Inlet.