Highlights

Jul 31, 2020

New research explains why Saanich Inlet is good for the climate

Research that demonstrates low oxygen levels in the depths of Saanich Inlet might seem like concerning news; after all, marine life needs oxygen to survive. But on a planet facing climate change, this is also good news: without oxygen, the organisms living on the seafloor, or benthos, can't decompose, thus reducing the amount of carbon that cycles back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Figure 1. Saanich Inlet is a 274 metre deep glacially carved fjord separated from the Salish Sea by a shallow sill that restricts water inflow, making it naturally low in oxygen.

Coastal fjords are known hot spots for organic carbon burial,...

saanich inlet | Fabian Wolk | venus | Carbon Sink

Past Stories

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.