NEWS RELEASE

*Update (March 31, 2025). The new observatory’s Iridium shore system and controller are powered and transmitting, but ONC is investigating issues with the CTD and interruptions in data flow from the instrument. Investigations are being conducted remotely, as the station is now closed for the winter.* Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and its European partner have successfully deployed a new replacement subsea cabled observatory in Antarctica, significantly improving its capacity to deliver high quality data on near real-time environmental changes to the Southern Ocean. The ongoing partnership between ONC, a University of Victoria initiative, and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) continues to advance our scientific understanding of one of the least observed parts of the planet, the Southern Ocean, or the Antarctic Ocean. Watch the video explaining our partnership.

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is partnering to support the global delivery of research data from the first all-Canadian led scientific expedition to the Southern Ocean. The [Canadian Antarctic Research Expedition](https://natural-resources.canada.ca/stories/simply-science/simply-science-secondsfirst-fully-canadian-research-expedition-antarctica) (CARE 2025) in February and March 2025 aboard the Royal Canadian Navy vessel *HMCS Margaret Brooke* was a milestone oceanographic research mission to the Southern Ocean and Antarctic coast that brought together government, academia and industry. The data were collected by an interdisciplinary team of 15 scientists. As a Major Research Facility and an initiative of the University of Victoria (UVic), ONC's expertise in data stewardship has played a critical role, during and after the expedition. "This first all-Canadian research expedition to the Southern Ocean, supported by ONC's data management expertise, marks a significant step in enhancing our understanding of climate change impacts in this critical region,” says ONC president and CEO Kate Moran. “The dedication of our data specialists ensures these valuable findings will be accessible to Canada and the global research community, contributing to a more resilient future." # Data delivery The ingestion and parsing of the collected water property data, being made available on ONC’s Oceans 3.0 data portal, provides valuable ocean intelligence for scientists to better understand the rapidly changing conditions in this polar region. This includes the ocean and seafloor conditions, near ONC's [partner subsea observatory](https://www.oceannetworks.ca/news-and-stories/stories/new-onc-partner-observatory-expands-monitoring-in-southern-ocean/) with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Together with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) scientists, ONC is processing data from 35 deployments of a conductivity (salinity), temperature, and depth (CTD) instrument deployed on a rosette sampler in the Southern Ocean. The CTD rosette was used to measure both physical and chemical water column properties at 22 locations spanning an area within the South Shetland Islands in the Drake Passage, north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Water samples were also collected for laboratory analyses. This CTD rosette system is part of the Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure (MORI), owned and operated by the Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response network (MEOPAR), which assembled the academic component of the research team for CARE 2025, with funding from Polar Knowledge Canada.