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A Conversation with ONC Visiting Scholar, Dr. Tom Kwasnitschka

Overview

**Many of our colleagues are oceanographers, ocean scientists, biologists, geophysicists, etc. How would you describe your specialized profession?** I would say I am a deep sea volcanologist, seafloor surveyor and science visualizer. **Did you have a moment in your childhood when you knew what professional direction your life would take? Did you have a “fall in love with the ocean” moment?** I probably have to cite the usual influences like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jacques Cousteau, and Bob Ballard (yes, I am that young). But I knew pretty much at age 15 that I wanted to do what I do now. **What path led you to choose robotics and data visualization (projected video environments/virtual reality/3D photogrammetry) in a marine environment?** First, I wanted to be a submarine engineer, but I am bad at math. Then I wanted to become a submarine captain, but naval subs have no windows. So I ended up as a scientist, which is more agreeable and I got those windows. **You have a variety of exciting research interests. Is there a central theme that links them all?** My goal is to provide the highest possible detail of the seafloor. Doing so seems to be most rewarding at deep sea volcanoes. **What makes you most excited about your research, or your future direction?** The great challenge we still face in marine geology is to actually transport ourselves to the seafloor. We now recreate the marine environment in virtual simulators that finally give us a feeling of our presence down there.

Ocean Networks Canada given international boost by BBC’s “Blue Planet II”

Overview

Ocean Networks Canada’s international profile has been given a boost—potentially reaching billions of people across the planet—as ONC video and audio highlights are featured as part of “[Blue Planet II](http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/blue-planet-ii),” the British Broadcasting Corp.’s new natural history TV series, and in the lead-up to the show’s start on Sunday. ONC provided underwater video of the Endeavour hydrothermal vents for the second episode (“[The Deep](http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/blue-planet-ii/the-deep)”) of “Blue Planet II” via ONC’s SeaTube video player that let BBC producers search and watch ONC’s archive of deep-sea videos. The TV series starts in Britain on Oct. 29, with the second episode on Nov. 5. The show will appear [in Canada on BBC Earth in early 2018](http://bbcearth.ca/show/planet-earth-blue-planet-ii/).

Exploring deep ocean hydrothermals

Overview

More than 1,000 metres below the ocean’s surface where seawater meets magma, underwater volcanoes erupt producing hot springs known as hydrothermal vents. Here exists a world that survives and thrives in the absence of sunlight. University of Victoria (UVic) oceanography PhD student Moronke Harris studies microbial communities around these hydrothermal vents and their eroding mineral deposits. > “The most fascinating part of my work is the rarity, the uniqueness of location, and the potential for discovery. Thousands of metres under the ocean’s surface we explore areas of the Earth few have seen, and contribute to the discovery of our ‘final frontier’.” –*Moronke Harris, UVic Oceanography PhD student* Together with her graduate supervisor Dr. S. Kim Juniper, Harris uses data from Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) large regional underwater cabled observatory NEPTUNE (North East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments) to study the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Juniper is Chief Scientist at ONC and professor with UVic’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

Currents of remembering

Overview

*“Through my practices during the fellowship, I have come to think of memory as something larger than the human; something geological, something ecological.”*
2025 ONC ArtScience Fellow, Parvin Harsani. When [Parvin Hasani](https://flute-cyan-zbjc.squarespace.com) speaks about memory, she doesn't describe it as a fixed presence. Instead, she speaks of it like water—fluid, elusive, yet constantly shaping its surroundings. “Memory is intangible,” she says, “but it leaves traces in the body.” In September 2025, those traces took on a sculptural form at her University of Victoria (UVic) exhibition, *[Tides of Memory](https://flute-cyan-zbjc.squarespace.com/new-page-1): Mapping the Invisible Currents of the Body and Ocean*; a new installation created during Parvin’s 2025 Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) ArtScience Fellowship: a partnership program co-led by the UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts and ONC. The Iranian interdisciplinary artist and Master’s student in UVic’s [Visual Arts](https://www.uvic.ca/finearts/visualarts/index.php) department spent four months studying the life, movement, and mineral processes occurring within and around hydrothermal vents—fractures in the Earth’s crust where superheated mineral-rich fluids flow into the ocean’s cold depths. Her collaboration with scientists enabled the translation of scientific data from ONC’s Endeavour study site into works of art. “Scientific data gave me the language of [vent] formation and collapse, but art practice allowed me to interpret the knowledge,” she explains. To visualize these ideas, Parvin employed a variety of methods, among them *Scagliola*, which builds up layers of plaster and pigments in intricate patterns, creating rich, textured surfaces. She paired this with electro-etching, a technique that uses electricity and chemical reactions to inscribe metal with patterns—manifesting the traces that time and environment leave on both the ocean floor and the human body.