Highlights

Mar 10, 2021

Marine Institute launches underwater ocean observatory in Conception Bay

ONC staff installing the Holyrood Observatory

MARINE INSTITUTE OF MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY NEWS RELEASE
March 10, 2021

The Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University and partner, the University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada, installed a seafloor observatory in Conception Bay last month to enable real-time monitoring of oceanographic conditions and marine life.

Equipped with specialized instrumentation, the $750,000 observatory monitors currents, waves, water temperature, salinity and underwater sounds. It also features a high-resolution...

Past Stories

Sediment Mix-Masters

May 23, 2012

The seafloor is, arguably, one of the most extensive habitats on the planet and it is significantly understudied. It is home to a variety of benthic organisms that spend much, if not all, of their time on the bottom sliding along or ploughing through sediment. Some organisms are deposit-feeders that ingest sediments, absorb their organic content, and excrete faecal strings or pellets; other organisms are burrowers that actively mix sediments vertically. This process by which organisms mix up sediment, is known as bioturbation

New Species Revealed in our Backyard

Mar 26, 2012

Saanich Inlet is home to 2 species that are new to science: an anemone (shown in the above photo) that lives at 100 m depth remains to be described (Synhalcurias n.sp.) while the white sea squirt (shown below) was described several years ago as Bathypera feminalba. The name means “White Lady” – reflecting the white colour and the location in Saanich Inlet where it was collected: White Lady Rocks.

Storm Watching

Mar 16, 2012

An intense windstorm left thousands of Vancouver Islanders out of power and forced BC Ferries to suspend service to the mainland on the 22nd. Wind gusts exceeding 110km/h were recorded in places, as a train of intense low pressure systems struck Vancouver Island's west coast one after another. Data from Folger Deep revealed some interesting trends. At storm onset, oxygen concentrations increased significantly, probably due to mixing from wave action, and then levelled out. Water temperature also increased during the early stages of the storm. Salinity, on the other hand, dropped throughout the event.

Seismic Shift in Whale Studies

Feb 21, 2012

Fin whales are the world’s 2nd largest whale species (blue whales are the largest). These majestic creatures inhabit temperate to sub-arctic waters in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Within the Pacific Ocean basin, there are at least 3 geographically distinct populations. In the North Pacific Ocean, fin whales have been observed as far north as the Chukchi Sea during the summer months while in winter, they spend their time off the coasts of Korea and Japan in the West Pacific, and off northern Baja California in the East Pacific.

Using Sound to Visualize Currents

Feb 3, 2012

Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) are instruments used in our subsea network and other oceanographic applications to measure the currents. We collect data from two types of ADCPs, manufactured by Nortek and RDI. These ADCPs use “sound beams” to measure water movement. Sound pulses are sent out in three or four different directions from the instrument; when sound waves strike suspended objects such as tiny particles or zooplankton, some of the energy is reflected back to the ADCP where it is detected by the instrument’s transducers. The received signal intensity gives an indication of the abundance of particles within the water. The Doppler shift of the received signal for each beam is used to determine the current velocity.

Hydrate Growth at Bullseye Vent?

Dec 9, 2011

Gas hydrates are ice-like solids composed of natural gas, usually methane in marine environments, and water. Hydrates are known to exist in the Cascadia margin, west of Vancouver Island, beneath the seafloor. Sediment stiffness is increased by frozen hydrates, like ice in winter mud. The degree of stiffness is an indicator of the amount of hydrate present per unit volume. Gas hydrate outcrops, venting and topography in the Cascadia margin have been intensively studied and are observed to change over time. Does the volume of hydrates also change with time? University of Toronto researchers Lisa Roach and Nigel Edwards are trying to find out.

Tempo-Mini Inhabits the Hot Vents

Nov 30, 2011

During the last few years, engineering and science teams at Ifremer, France's national public institute for marine research have developedTempo-Mini: a custom-designed instrument package for real-time monitoring of hydrothermal vent communities and their environment.

Phytoplankton Research Using VENUS

Oct 31, 2011

For the past four years, the Paleoenvironmental Laboratory of Dr. Vera Pospelova (University of Victoria, SEOS) has been involved in continuous monitoring program of fossilizable phytoplankton in Saanich Inlet, British Columbia.

Free Wally Keeps on Ticking

Sep 21, 2011

Wally the Crawler underwent the ultimate stress test on Sunday. After entering the water tethered beneath the Remotely Operated Vehicle ROPOS, strong waves apparently sprung Wally loose. He took an 870 m free dive from the sea surface to the seafloor at Barkley Hydrates.

Wally the Crawler dangles below ROPOS just prior to entering the ocean at Barkley Hydrates, 18 September 2011.

Detection of a Large Salmon Run?

Sep 20, 2011

The Zooplankton Acoustic Profiler (ZAP) located at the base of the slope of the Fraser Delta recorded this hourly image of echo-sounder data on September 5, 2011 ( just after dusk and at rising tide). The image reveals a dense school of large fish between 10 and 20m depth, and many individual fish between 20 and 80m depth.

Folger Pinnacle Frontiers

Aug 22, 2011

The Folger Pinnacle instrument platform was installed on August 23, 2010 (watch the installation cruise highlights) and connected on February 2, 2011 by a combined team of Pelagic Technologies divers, the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (BMSC), and Ocean Networks Canada. Since then, a wealth of data has been gathered by instruments affixed to this 23m deep platform. However, in recent months, Dilumie Abeysirigunawardena, one of our data specialists, noticed a drop in the instruments’ data quality and sensitivity.

Crowd Truthing Experiment

Apr 20, 2011

Researchers at the University of Victoria wondered if crowd sourcing might be harnessed to identify and classify fish swimming through Ocean Networks Canada’s many hundreds of hours of underwater video archives. Two biology instructors, Thomas Reimchen and Roswitha Marx along with graduate assistant Steve Leaver conducted a unique experiment this spring, engaging an ichthyology (fish zoology) class in fish identification exercises via SeaTube, our underwater video viewer.

Folger Pinnacle Connected

Feb 7, 2011

Our Folger Pinnacle instrument platform is now up and running after a team of divers plugged in the extension cable connecting it to Folger Passage node and the rest of the NEPTUNE Observatory last week. Glenn Hafey of Pelagic Technologies made the actual connection after he and his 4-man team dove 23m to the platform from the Bamfield Marine Science Centre’s 9.8m aluminum dive support boat, the Barkley Star.

Listening to the Deep

Dec 16, 2010

Although underwater sound pollution is suspected to have many negative impacts on marine life, pinning them down is not so easy. To do so, we need to better understand when and why marine animals use different types of vocalizations and how they mentally process the sounds they hear.

New Boreholes Prepared

Nov 16, 2010

The JOIDES Resolution research drillship, a key vessel in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), was docked in Victoria this summer for three months of refit work before heading out on two cruises in July and September

East Pacific Red Octopus

Jun 21, 2010

This East Pacific Red Octopus (Octopus rubescens) was observed by our camera in Saanich Inlet. This octopus is found from the southern Gulf of California to the Gulf of Alaska. O. rubescens generally grows to a mantle length of 8-10 cm and up to 400 gm.

Chilean Earthquake and Tsunami

Mar 4, 2010

On Saturday, Feb. 27 2010, 0634UTC, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred off the coast of Chile. A tsunami advisory was issued for the BC coast. According to the USGS, "this earthquake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. The two plates are converging at a rate of 70 mm per year. The earthquake occurred as thrust-faulting on the interface between the two plates, with the Nazca plate moving down and landward below the South American plate."

Samoan Tsunami Detected

Oct 20, 2009

When a devastating magnitude 8.0 earthquake occurred roughly 200 km south of the Samoan Islands at 17:48:11 UTC on Tuesday September 29, 2009, it generated a trans-oceanic tsunami that spread at jet-like speeds throughout the Pacific Ocean.