The figure shows the temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration from instrumentation in Saanich Inlet located at approximately 97 metres depth, for the period of 28 January-3 February 2013. The temperature decreases and oxygen increases, a sign that top-down and lateral mixing has finally penetrated our study area to bring upper water-column conditions down to our sensors and experiments at 97 m.

Stacked in the image 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 while the ferry transits between Nanaimo (Duke Point) and Vancouver (Tsawwassen).

After a year and a half in development with the Government of Nunavut and the community of Cambridge Bay, a new community observatory is now streaming continuous data from the Arctic seafloor.

This animated image depicts measurements of the surface ocean currents in the Strait of Georgia over a recent 24-hour period.

From Alaska to Vancouver, residents along the west coast felt the powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck the Haida Gwaii archipelago at 8:04PM PDT, on October 27th, 2012. Ocean Networks Canada seafloor hydrophones also registered the low-frequency rumbles from this earthquake, along with the calls of humpback whales in the area.

A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck central Moresby Island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago at 8:04PM PDT, 27 October 2012. Residents along the west coast—from Alaska to Vancouver—also felt several aftershocks up to magnitude 5.8. However, no major damage or injuries were reported. This was the largest temblor to hit Canada since 1949, when an 8.1-magnitude quake hit west of the Queen Charlotte Islands, in the same area.

After more than a year in the making, we are happy to release our latest publication, An Invitation to Science, available in print, downloadable pdf and iBook formats.

Using data collected between Dec. 2011 and Apr. 2012 from an Ocean Sonics low frequency hydrophone that was deployed at the VENUS Strait of Georgia East site, this publication assesses various methods for averaging local shipping noise levels.

During the last 3 weeks, the VENUS seafloor camera feed was used in the Biological Oceanography (EOS/BIOL311) summer course at the University of Victoria. Observing live conditions at 300 m depth in the Strait of Georgia was a rather unique experience to the students learning about ocean processes and marine biology in the coastal environment.

Late in the afternoon of 4 June 2012 PDT (early on June 5 UTC), VENUS lost contact with the Delta Dynamics Laboratory (DDL) platform, an NRCan lead research initiative studying delta slope stability. The image shows the last minutes of data from the platform. The data suggest the entire platform was tumbled several times westward into deeper water, until the data streams end at 00:04:03 [UTC].

The Fraser River freshet is starting (snow pack melt in the coastal mountains), and the suspended sediment loads coming out of the river mouth into the Strait of Georgia are also increasing.

After years of collecting, presenting, and delivering raw echo-sounder data, we have (finally) got around to confirming the calibration of our echo-sounder systems and can now produce calibrated backscatter volume values [Sv].

VENUS XWing camera captured Giant Pacific Octopus preying on a spot prawn at the forensic research site in the Strait of Georgia.

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 cameras installed on the network. As of December 2011, VENUS operates 4 cameras – two in Saanich Inlet and two in the Strait of Georgia.