Queen of Alberni

Apr 29, 2016

Observing Seasonal Marine Changes with BC Ferries

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BC Ferries takes a closer look at the 2016 spring bloom in the Strait of Georgia

Every year, March brings two kinds of spring blooms to the temperate British Columbia coast: one involves an annual flower count, which is the envy of the country; the other turns the Salish Sea green with an explosion of marine productivity. BC Ferries plays an important role on both counts, bringing visitors across the Strait of Georgia to enjoy the Island’s blossoms while simultaneously hosting Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) instruments that collect marine data in the Strait of Georgia.

ONC measures ocean properties at the sea surface using advanced instruments installed onboard three ferry routes. The route from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay was instrumented...

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BC Ferries | phytoplankton | spring bloom | Queen of Alberni | strait of georgia | biomass

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Ocean Networks Canada teams up with BC Ferries to monitor Canada’s busiest waterway

July 30, 2015

NEWS RELEASE

VICTORIA, B.C. — The University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) has expanded its world-class ocean observatories to include data collected from three BC Ferries.

With instrumentation in the ferries’ hull and a weather station on deck, scientists can now observe ocean surface properties continuously while the ferries transit the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

The strait is a vital waterway to understand. Not only is it Canada’s busiest trade route, it’s home to the world’s largest commercial salmon fishery, important habitat for herring to spawn...

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BC Ferries | ferry system | strait of georgia | Queen of Oak Bay | Queen of Alberni | Spirit of Vancouver Island

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Spring Bloom Observed in Ferry Data

The biological transition from winter to spring conditions in the Strait of Georgia is characterized by a spring phytoplankton bloom. Inter-annual timing of this phytoplankton bloom can vary by up to 6 weeks (Collins et al. 2009). This broad time range introduces the potential for a mismatch in the timing of the major annual period of zooplankton productivity in the Strait, which can in turn, influence the productivity of higher trophic levels such as fish and sea birds. Understanding the dominant factors influencing the timing of the bloom is therefore the subject of considerable interest (Collins et al. 2009; Allen & Wolfe 2013; Gower et al. 2013).

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phytoplankton | bloom | spring bloom | BC Ferries | Queen of Alberni | strait of georgia | biomass | oxygen

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BC Ferry System Generates over 48 Plots Each Day

Stacked in the image below are 48 plots generated from 16 sensors of the VENUS Ferry System installed on a BC Ferries M/V Queen of Alberni. The comprehensive system monitors oceanographic and atmospheric conditions along ferry transits between Nanaimo (Duke Point) and Vancouver (Tsawwassen).

Oceanographic parameters collected by the system include seawater temperature, salinity, density, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and the relative concentration of chlorophyll.

Meteorological measurements focus on marine atmospheric boundary layer conditions and include air temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction, incoming solar radiation, and out-going irradiance.

The image shows a day of data collected on Jan 5th, 2013. For each...

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BC Ferries | strait of georgia | Queen of Alberni

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VENUS Ferries System Data are Available on Website

BC Ferries Color Spatial map of SeaBird Salinity data.

The VENUS Ferry System is back online, collecting data from a number of surface and meteorological station sensors. After the scheduled maintenance the M/V Queen of Alberni (BC Ferries) is back on its route between Nanaimo and Vancouver (Duke Point – Tsawwassen). Browse our data plots gallery or access the data in the archive.

 

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BC Ferries | Queen of Alberni | strait of georgia | ferry data | salinity

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Ferry System Installed on the MV Queen of Alberni

Paul Macoun (VENUS) on his way to the enhanced meteorological station, part of the VENUS Ferry System installed on MV Queen of Alberni.

Our engineering team has finished installing the first of three ferry-based monitoring systems on the Queen of Alberni (BC Ferries). The Queen of Alberni plies the waters of the Salish Sea between Tsawwassen and Duke Point Terminals, 18 hours a...

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BC Ferries | Queen of Alberni | venus | ferry | VENUS Ferry System

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BC Ferries Instrumentation is Underway

Queen of Alberni in dry dock (Dec 2011).

The first vessel selected to host a SeaKeeper 1000 instrument system for Ocean Networks Canada data collection is BC Ferries’ Queen of Alberni. The system will support the following seawater sensors: temperature, conductivity (salinity), oxygen, chlorophyll and turbidity, and in addition it will be integrated with a comprehensive meteorological sensor suite located on the upper decks of the...

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BC Ferries | Queen of Alberni | SeaKeeper 1000 | dry dock

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