Ocean Networks Canada - Fisheries and Oceans Canada

World-class ocean observing gets a boost

kshoemak@uvic.ca — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 18:38:36 +0000

A hydrophone is deployed to monitor underwater noise in the Strait of Georgia, home to endangered killer whales and Canada’s biggest port, Vancouver. Credit: Ocean Networks Canada.

UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA NEWS RELEASE
August 11, 2021

An $8.7-million investment into the University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) advances ocean-observing infrastructure on all three of Canada’s coasts, aligning a nationwide plan to safeguard the country’s ocean and coastal ecosystems for future generations.

The support by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), announced on Wednesday by Minister Bernadette Jordan, means ONC will continue to deliver data in real time to advance science and provide communities, governments and industry with ocean knowledge to make informed decisions. Since 2017, ONC has worked with DFO to deliver products anchored in Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan.

Ocean Networks Canada is committed to growing Canada’s leadership in the sustainable blue economy through our world-leading innovation in ocean-monitoring technology. Our culture of innovation and partnership leverages science and Indigenous knowledge to develop ocean intelligence, and evolve ocean technology to address the biggest challenge today—climate change, which was so clearly urgently highlighted this week from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. —Kate Moran, president and chief executive of ONC.

Canada invested in the protection of the ocean through ONC 15 years ago, making history as the world’s first large-scale, interactive, real-time portal into the ocean. The ocean-observing infrastructure has benefited diverse sectors such as fisheries and aquaculture, marine transportation, ocean technology and ecotourism, says Moran.

These further investments in ONC support Canada’s growing blue economy, which depends upon the sustainable use and management of our ocean resources.

“Today’s investment in marine science and innovation will have a major impact and ensure Canada is at the forefront of oceans research, management, climate solutions and the blue economy. This funding shows Canada’s unwavering commitment to protecting our oceans, coastlines and industries for future generations,” says Kevin Hall, UVic’s president and vice-chancellor.

This support comes at an opportune time—the first year of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development—and will allow our scientists and policy-makers to ensure that ocean science delivers greater benefits for both the ocean ecosystem and for the Canadian and global society. —Kevin Hall, UVic’s president and vice-chancellor.

Ocean observing instruments provide real-time monitoring of hydrothermal vent communities at Endeavour, Canada’s first marine protected area. Credit: Ocean Networks Canada.

World-leading ocean-observing infrastructure

Building on ONC’s core funding provided through the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the match-funding will support infrastructure on all three of Canada’s coastlines.

Oceanographic radar provides real-time information on the speed and direction of surface currents and waves to better inform navigation and emergency response, including ships in distress and oil spills. The continuous long-time series data collected by these instruments contribute to Canada’s marine safety and marine mammal protection.

ONC’s hydrophone networks measure and monitor underwater noise in both the deep sea and busy coastal waterways such as the Strait of Georgia, home to Canada’s biggest port, Vancouver. The free, continuous, near real-time data helps researchers and others understand how shipping noise impacts key endangered killer whale habitats. ONC’s hydrophone data was also used globally to inform research into reduced underwater noise during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Since 2009, ONC’s deep ocean sensors have provided real-time monitoring of Canada’s first marine protected area at the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vent Fields. ONC’s cabled observatories, remote control systems, interactive sensors, and big data management enables evidence-based decision-making for marine science, ocean management, disaster mitigation and marine protection and conservation.

Read the University of Victoria news release.
Read the Government of Canada news release.

Pacific Seamounts Expedition 2021

kshoemak@uvic.ca — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 18:06:39 +0000

On 15 June 2021, a science team will embark on a two-week expedition to uncover the mysteries of Canada’s deepest seamounts in the Offshore Pacific Marine Protected Area of Interest. This expedition is a partnership among Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Ocean Networks Canada, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, and the Council of the Haida Nation, working together to explore and share discoveries from this adventure.

This survey will expand the knowledge from our previous Pacific Seamounts partner expeditions in 2017, 2018, and 2019 where many discoveries were made—including discoveries of new seamounts, new animal distributions and behaviours, and even new species to science! The discoveries from these expeditions will provide information to those involved in the conservation and management of these unique ecosystems in Canadian waters.

Past expeditions focused on Canada’s shallowest seamounts, largest seamounts, and previously fished seamounts, but this year we will dive deeper than ever before to explore what lives on these ancient volcanoes hidden kilometers below the surface (Figure 1 and Figure 8).

Figure 1: The four deep seamounts for the 2021 expedition, three of which are within the Proposed Marine Protected Area offshore Vancouver Island. These seamounts represent the deepest in our waters. The white dots indicate the locations of 62 known seamounts.

What is a Seamount?

Figure 2. Illustration of a seamount.

Seamounts are underwater mountains that rise more than 1,000 meters from the seafloor (Figure 2). They are considered ‘hotspots’ of biological productivity and diversity. Ocean currents meet the slopes of seamounts and carry nutrient-rich water upwards from the depths of the ocean. Close to the sunlit surface, this fast-running nutrient-rich water supports a bloom of life that has cascading ecosystem effects over the entire mountain. Seamounts provide refugium and nursery grounds for many species far from the continental slope. Predators such as birds, fish, and marine mammals use seamounts as feeding grounds. Unique and long-living species, such as cold-water corals and glass sponges, are found in bands along the seamounts slopes and add to the seamount structure complexity, creating habitat for many other species (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Images from Canadian Pacific seamounts of the marine wildlife that call these ancient volcanoes home.

Scientists and Partners

Figure 4. The #PacificSeamounts2019 team on the CCGS John P. Tully with the submersible vehicles used to explore the deep.

Tammy Norgard, Expedition Lead Scientist, Deep Sea Ecology Program Head
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Dr. Cherisse Du Preez, Marine Biologist
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Chelsea Stanley, Fisheries Acoustics Research Technician
Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Benjamin Snow, Biologist and BOOTS navigator
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Jackie Detering, Technician and BOOTS navigator
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Andy Vanier, Technician and BOOTS navigator
Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Paul Macoun, Boots Technician
Highland Technologies

The partners

The Tools

The expedition will be conducted from a large research vessel, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship John P. Tully (Figure 5). From this research vessel the scientists will use acoustic technology to map the seafloor. Many of the seamounts have never been mapped before and we may even witness a new seamount discovery.

Figure 5. The CCGS John P. Tully at sea deploying BOOTS over a seamount.

The Bathyal Ocean Observation and Televideo System (Figure 6), also known as “BOOTS,” is a submersible drop camera platform containing high-resolution cameras, floodlights, and sensors. Attached to and controlled from aboard the ship, it can dive up to 2,100 meters while delivering real-time imagery and ocean temperature, oxygen level, depth, and current data.

BOOTS was designed and built, in part, at Pacific Biological Station, Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Figure 6. BOOTS being deployed for a research dive.

To study the ocean properties around seamounts, the researchers will also be deploying plankton tows (Figure 7) for studying life in the water column, targeted rosette water casts to collect water from set depths for analysis on nutrients, etc., and we will be using the acoustic technology to profile life in the water column. This year the plankton tows will have a very cool tool called an underwater vision profiler that will allow the researchers to see the microscopic animals as they are being sampled with the plankton net.

Figure 7. Plankton nets being deployed to sample life in the water column above the seamounts. The tiny animals are identified and inventoried at sea using microscopes and cameras.

The Area: The Offshore Pacific Area of Interest

In May 2017, Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced a new large offshore Area of Interest off the coast of British Columbia, beginning the extensive process of establishing the area as a Marine Protected Area under Canada’s Oceans Act. This area was designated as an Area of Interest based on its unique seafloor features and ecosystems, which include dozens of seamounts and extensive networks of hydrothermal vents.

The Area of Interest has interim protection through the Offshore Pacific Seamount and Vents Closure marine refuge, which was established in October 2017. The marine refuge aims to protect the area’s unique ecosystem and prohibits all bottom-contact commercial and recreational fishing activities.

Figure 8. This map identifies the 62 Offshore Pacific Bioregion seamounts, with coloured circles denoting the 12 seamounts surveyed in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

We hope you will join us on this two-week expedition as we dive deeper than ever before to explore the nature and marine wildlife on British Columbia’s seamounts. We invite you to share in the joy of discovery and the thrill of being a marine biologist by participating in deep-sea exploration as we find and film never-before-seen species, animal behaviours, and ocean scapes. Through our partnerships, we hope to reach communities in British Columbia, across Canada, and around the world, engaging everyone in the process of frontier science and exploration.

Join us by following #PacificSeamounts2021 on social media and tuning into our live dives here.

Expedition 2019: Highlights Story Map

duncanlowrie@uvic.ca — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 19:36:10 +0000

Click here for the full screen interactive experience.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada partners for a sustainable and healthy ocean future.

linzhill@uvic.ca — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 23:07:05 +0000

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is providing Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) with more than half a million dollars to organize its Pacific fisheries science, marine mammal and ocean data. This pilot project will use ONC’s powerful data management system, Oceans 2.0, to support science and make DFO data more open, accessible and user-friendly for their decision-making, stakeholders academia and Canadians. Oceans 2.0 is recognized by the International Council for Science as part of the World Data System.

The announcement was made by the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard today in Ottawa at the Oceana Canada’s Science Symposium: Rebuilding Abundance, Restoring Canada’s fisheries for Long-Term Prosperity.

Kate Moran, President & CEO, ONC

“ONC is excited to be partnering with DFO and to bring over 10 years of expertise in advanced management of ocean data to support informed, evidenced-based decisions about the ocean.”

Ocean Networks Canada, an initiative of the University of Victoria, monitors the west and east coasts of Canada and the Arctic to continuously gather data in real-time for scientific research that helps communities, governments and industry make informed decisions about our future.

Canada’s Marine Fisheries full scientific report by Drs. Julia Baum and Susanna D. Fuller: Canada's Marine Fisheries: Status, Recovery Potential and Pathways to Success."

Media Contact: Jessica Stigant jstigant@uvic.ca 250 589 0658

Ocean Networks Canada - Fisheries and Oceans Canada

World-class ocean observing gets a boost

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Pacific Seamounts Expedition 2021

What is a Seamount?

Scientists and Partners

The partners

The Tools

The Area: The Offshore Pacific Area of Interest

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Expedition 2019: Highlights Story Map

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Fisheries and Oceans Canada partners for a sustainable and healthy ocean future.

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