On Wednesday, 23 October 2013, Folger Pinnacle platform received its last maintenance and clean-up service for the year; the right in time before the November storms will be surging across the coast again. The experienced divers from Pelagic Technologies and the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre swapped the Folger ReefCam (also known as Outreach camera) for an overhauled and nicely cleaned one, installed several test instruments (development of the Ocean Networks Canada Innovation team) and, finally, thoroughly cleaned all instruments hosted on the Folger Platform.
Stunning improvements in the data quality were observed in the 3D Camera Array (see picture), and also the current-meters provide now more...
For the past two years, 2 benthic crawlers, Wally I and Wally II have served alternating stints helping scientists at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany explore and study the uniquely dynamic environment of the gas hydrate outcrops in Barkley Canyon.
Each time we swap out one Wally from the seafloor, the other Wally takes its place on the seafloor. With each replacement we have seen improvements in the replacement crawler's instrumentation and capabilities. The currently deployed Wally I is no exception.
Studying biorhythms in Saanich Inlet is an ongoing research project supported by Ocean Networks Canada. Following the initial deployment and analysis of results, published in Sensors (Aguzzi et al. 2011), the group of international collaborators is now using a seafloor camera (DISCo) that features a more developed control interface. The interface can automate the process of turning the...
For more than 6 years VENUS has been deploying and operating various camera systems on its network collecting imagery from Saanich Inlet and Strait of Georgia. Growing interest from the research community that rely on visual data from the deep ocean to conduct their experiments have led VENUS to expand the selection of...
The Folger Pinnacle instrument platform was installed on August 23, 2010 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. Some stopped working altogether, while signals from others have gradually diminished. (See, for example, the drop-off in irradiance from our light sensor below – you’d normally expect June to be brighter than February!)
...
