Ocean Networks Canada - barkley canyon

Expedition 2019: Highlights Story Map

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

Click here for the full screen interactive experience.

New research shines a light on the importance of submarine canyons

kshoemak@uvic.ca — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 19:26:00 +0000

We are only beginning to understand the vital role that submarine canyons play in our global ocean. Acting as ‘deep sea gutters’, these biodiversity hotspots trap and concentrate organic matter that serves as food for many marine invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals.

While nearly 10,000 submarine canyons have been mapped to date, only 8.5% of them have been studied by the scientific community. In a new volume of research published recently in Progress in Oceanography, 17 scientific articles describe new discoveries on physical, geological, and biological processes of these incredibly diverse and dynamic seabed topographic features, highlighting the key role submarine canyons play in ‘Bridging the gap between the shallow and deep oceans.’

The majority of this research was presented at the 3rd International Network for Submarine Canyon Investigation and Scientific Exchange (INCISE) Symposium, (Figure 1) hosted in Victoria, British Columbia in July 2016, co-sponsored by Ocean Networks Canada (ONC).

Figure 1. The 3rd INCISE Symposium in 2016 gathered 65 scientists from 17 countries, presenting research on 58 submarine canyon systems.

This special volume includes a review of the history of submarine canyon research. The earliest submarine canyon study dates to 1929, but it was not until the early 2000’s that this field started to achieve a high degree of interdisciplinarity, with research topics becoming more cohesive and interconnected.

Other topics in the volume include research on physical oceanography, geomorphology and natural sedimentary processes; quantifying the submarine canyon seafloor habitat; the impacts of bottom trawling; and an in-depth investigation of Barkley Canyon in the northeast Pacific off Vancouver Island.

Since its installation in 2009, ONC’s offshore cabled observatory has made it possible to study Barkley Canyon’s ecosystem in great detail. ONC’s extensive network of sensors and cameras (Figure 2) provides researchers with access to real-time data of benthic (seafloor) marine life and the main oceanographic processes governing their distribution and biodiversity.

Figure 2. Map of ONC’s cabled observatory infrastructure in Barkley Canyon.

A new and interesting finding by ONC’s senior scientist Fabio De Leo and co-authors was the surprising observation of large zooplankton species (copepods from the genus Neocalanus spp.) migrating as deep as one kilometer into the canyon to complete their reproductive cycle. The study offers insight into how much carbon these massive zooplankton migration events export into the deep sea each year, due to fact that adult copepods die at depth after reproducing. Determining ocean carbon stocks is essential in the framework of ongoing climate change mitigation actions.

The results from a second study, Food quantity and quality in Barkley Canyon (NE Pacific) and its influence on macroinfaunal community structure. Progr. Oceanogr. (in press) by Neus Campanyà-Lovet and co-authors, corroborated these findings. In sediment samples collected at Barkley Canyon, large quantities of lipid biomarkers (an indication of the presence of the same zooplankton species) were found at the very same locations where the video cameras are installed. Scientists are now starting to examine the entire video dataset close to nine years of observations to see how these zooplankton migration events changed in the last decade.

Read a summary of the new findings within this special volume, authored by Fabio De Leo, ONC senior staff scientist, and Pere Puig, marine geologist and head of the Marine Geosciences Department at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona.

The upcoming 4th INCISE International Submarine Canyons Symposium will take place in Shenzhen, China in November 2018. Co-sponsored by ONC, the scientific community hopes to consolidate existing research, and develop new, collaborative initiatives on various aspects of submarine canyon studies during this international event.

Barkley Canyon new scientific findings:

Campanyà-Llovet, N., Snelgrove, P.V.R., De Leo, F.C. Food quantity and quality in Barkley Canyon (NE Pacific) and its influence on macroinfaunal community structure. Progr. Oceanogr. (in press)

Chauvet, P., Metaxas, A., Hay, A.E., Matabos, M. Annual and seasonal dynamics of deep-sea megafaunal epibenthic communities in Barkley Canyon (British Columbia, Canada): A response to climatology, surface productivity and benthic boundary layer variation. Progr. Oceanogr. (in press).

De Leo, F.C., Bruno Ogata, B., Akash, R., Sastri, A.R., Heesemann, M., Mihály, S., Galbraith, M., Morley, M.G. High-frequency observations from a deep-sea cabled observatory reveal seasonal overwintering of Neocalanus spp. in Barkley Canyon, NE Pacific: Insights into particulate organic carbon flux. Progr. Oceanogr. (in press).

New study quantifies natural flux of methane gas in the northeast Pacific

kshoemak@uvic.ca — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 21:42:18 +0000

Beneath the ocean floor, bacteria produce methane gas that is regularly released up through the sediment and into the sea water as bubble streams (Figure 1). While these gas flares have been observed on continental margins around the world, until now there has been no systematic study of all available gas flow observation data to estimate the total amount of methane escaping from the seafloor. These data are important for the global inventory of carbon and also for analyzing the uptake of carbon dioxide (ocean acidification), and its impact on climate change.

Figure 1: Methane gas bubbles escaping the seafloor near Clayoquot Slope.

In a new study recently published in Nature.com, researchers in Germany and Canada have now analyzed all available historic and recent gas bubble data from the Cascadia margin off British Columbia, Washington and Oregon (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Regional map of the Cascadia margin showing flare distribution and gas bubbling flow rate. The size of the blue circles is proportional to the gas flow rate; black circles show vent sites without flow estimates. (Credit: Nature Communications)

Lead by GEOMAR’s Dr. Michael Riedel with his local colleagues in Kiel, along with researchers at MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Department of Geosciences at University of Bremen, Ocean Networks Canada and the University of Victoria, the study used ship-based acoustic surveys of the water column, as well as near-seafloor acoustic and visual data. They gathered over 1100 vent sites with over 430 gas flow estimates for the entire Cascadia offshore margin.

ONC scientists Martin Scherwath and Martin Heesemann contributed to the research by providing ONC data⎯including ship-based acoustic data, underwater video and seafloor multi-beam sonar data⎯as well as helping to interpret and statistically summarize the data, and writing the manuscript.

Figure 3. Examples of acoustic data showing gas venting. (a) Gas flare in ~120 metres water depth from expedition FK009A (EK60), (b) example of flares in ~85 metres water depth from expedition MF0903 (EK60), (c) example of a flare in ~920 metres water depth from expedition ONC2014 (EK60), and (d) fan-view of EM302 data of flares in ~1335 metres water depth from expedition Naut2016. (Credit: Nature Communications)

“With so many ship surveys and relevant data sets readily available across the Cascadia margin (Figure 3), we just had to go ahead with the study and reveal where all the undiscovered vents were and how much the total gas flux was likely to be.” comments ONC’s Martin Scherwath.

Since 2010, ONC has deployed multi-beam sonar instruments at Clayoquot Slope to study plumes of methane bubbles escaping from the seafloor. Previous research has monitored the bubble fluctuations at this site, but it is practically impossible to observe an entire margin's methane activity at all times. In order to obtain a gas flux estimate for the whole region, the existing observations were extrapolated in space and time to estimate gas activity over the entire margin, even at places where no data exist.

“While this estimate has large uncertainties,” says Martin Scherwath ”the research suggests that for every square metre of seafloor, about one gram of methane is bubbling up every year. This amounts to 100,000 tonnes of methane escaping the sediments into the ocean in offshore Cascadia every year.”

The existing observations at the Cascadia margin indicate that all of the gas is dissolving in the ocean, which means it is not escaping into the atmosphere where methane would act as a powerful greenhouse gas. Rather, its ocean dissolution is exacerbating ocean acidification.

Read the full research paper on Nature.com

Deployed: the first spike for British Columbia's earthquake early warning system

mkasprzik@oceannetworks.ca — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 23:00:23 +0000

In June 2016, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) successfully deployed and connected the first of several earthquake early warning sensors on the Cascadia subduction zone. It will be part of a network of seismic sensors that ONC will install underwater and on land as part of an earthquake early warning system funded by Emergency Management British Columbia (EMBC).

The first EEWS sensor being deployed on the Cascadia subduction zone.

In February 2016, the Government of British Columbia announced an investment of $5 million to develop an earthquake early warning system that will provide British Columbians with up to 90 seconds of warning in advance of the arrival of ground shaking after the 'Big One' occurs. The Cascadia subduction zone is an active seismic region that is expected to produce a major earthquake in the future. An early warning alert will save lives and protect infrastructure.

With the support of the University of Alaska’s research vessel Sikuliaq and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s remotely operated vehicle Jason, ONC deployed the EEWS sensor on the Cascadia subduction zone during its recent Expedition 2016: Wiring the Abyss. This EEWS sensor—a Titan accelerometer—is encased in a glass sphere to withstand the pressure in water depths of 850 m at Barkley Canyon.

Following deployment, the sensor was successfully connected to ONC’s observatory infrastructure and data management system, Oceans 2.0. ONC scientists have already been able to analyze data from recent minor earthquakes.

“We are among the first in the world to install these types of sensors in the ocean for earthquake early warning,” says Kate Moran, president of Ocean Networks Canada.

A green caisson embedded into the ocean floor is filled with glass beads to provide a stable environment for the EEWS sensor to detect seismic activity at the Cascadia fault.

A crab watches as the EEWS sensor is carefully inserted into the caisson.

After deployment, the EEWS is covered with glass beads and then connected to ONC's observatory infrastructure and powerful data management system, Oceans 2.0.

Earthquake Early Warning Backgrounder

RELATED STORIES

Ocean Networks Canada to coordinate earthquake early warning for BC – media release February 2016
Making progress on earthquake early warning – web story January 2016
First BC Offshore Earthquake Early Warning Sensor Up and Running - CBC News story 20 July 2016
Earthquake warning sensors installed off B.C. coast - Global BC news story, 27 July 2016

Expedition 2016 Wrap: Bigger Footprint Enables Better Science

mkasprzik@oceannetworks.ca — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 16:08:55 +0000

Ocean Networks Canada’s (ONC) Expedition 2016: Wiring the Abyss returned to port on June 25 after 40 days at sea off the west coast of Canada. This ambitious undertaking involved 149 people aboard three ships, and included three remotely operated vehicles (ROV) making 44 dives to deploy, maintain and recover 180 instruments and lay 18 km of fibre-optic cable. The dynamic 24/7 operations engaged viewers across the world via live stream and featured regular Q&A with scientists, educators and engineers.

All in a day's work: laying cables on the Juan de Fuca spreading ridge.

This successful expedition expanded the footprint of ONC’s cabled NEPTUNE observatory in the northeast Pacific, which will deepen our scientific understanding of the planet.

ONC deployed and connected four seismometers and four regional circulation moorings at the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca ridge, a deep-sea volcanic rift that separates the Pacific and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates. The seismometer on the west flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge is ONC’s first on the Pacific Plate. The sensors enable a better understanding of this dynamic environment that includes hot vents and a vibrant fauna in Canada’s first marine protected area. In particular, the new seismometer array yields locations and magnitudes of local spreading earthquakes.

“Congratulations on expanding the seismometer array on the Juan de Fuca ridge to four seismometers. This is an important step in completing the ridge seismometer array, which will allow us to better understand ocean ridge earthquake activity,” says Garry Rogers, Ph.D. Emeritus Research Scientist, Geological Survey of Canada / NRCan / Government of Canada, Adjunct Professor, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria.

Views of the Endeavour hydrothermal vents from the E/V Nautilus control room.

With the help of C/S Wave Venture, a total of 18 km of steel-armoured, fibre-optic cable was laid on the ocean floor to connect instruments primarily at Endeavour (15 km) and at Clayoquot Slope (3 km).

“The new cables at the Endeavour mid-ocean ridge will hugely increase our understanding of tectonic or volcanic events along mid-ocean ridges,” comments University of Victoria marine geologist Laurence Coogan, who is ONC's theme leader for "Interconnections Among the Seafloor, Ocean and Atmosphere." The data fed back in real-time will tell us when the ocean floor is cracking, which affects black smoker vent fluid circulation in the deep biosphere. The interconnected nature of these systems with the overlying ocean can even affect the zooplankton associated with the hydrothermal vent plume at 300 m above the ocean bottom.”

Endeavour now has 15 km of new fibre-optic cables (outlined in yellow).

“We have now realized the challenging vision of a comprehensive suite of observation arrays at sites across Endeavour, one of the most challenging ocean environments on Earth,” comments Richard Dewey, ONC’s Associate Director, Science Services.

A tsunami array that was previously deployed at Cascadia—and suffered from breaks in the fibre optic communication paths—was brought back to life using an innovative new communications solution. Originally proposed by Woods Hole Marine Systems, ONC is now successfully transmitting data to the data management system Oceans 2.0 through copper power conductors. Three bottom pressure recorders are also now transmitting data in real-time.

Round the clock operations on the E/V Nautilus with ROV Hercules.

The success of Wiring the Abyss 2016 granted ONC’s science users increased access to the most vibrant marine ecosystem in our cabled observatories. At Barkley Canyon, a redesigned, trawl-resistant node was redeployed and connected, along with an upgraded Wally the Crawler and an autonomous sediment transport mooring at the canyon head, which will allow scientists to better understand the dynamics of shelf-to-canyon exchange processes.

An upgraded Wally has an innovative 3-D imaging system that can detect changes in the seafloor down to a 1 mm resolution.

"Submarine canyons are geographic features on the seafloor, like underwater river valleys that steer deep-water circulation and concentrate biomass and particulate matter,“ comments Pere Puig, Institute of Marine Sciences oceanographic geologist who is the ONC theme leader for "Seafloor and Sediment in Motion."

“The existing ONC Barkley Canyon site is located in a water depth of 1000 m, far away from the canyon's shallower rims incising the continental shelf edge. The addition of an autonomous site at one of the canyon head branches will be of great interest for my area of research, which focuses on the ways that sediment moves from the continental shelf down to the deep sea. Other scientists are interested in using the data from this new site to understand the up-welling movement of water from the deepest parts of the canyon up onto the shelf."

The new Barkley Canyon-head mooring will help scientists better understand the shelf-to-canyon exchange process.

ONC’s tenth anniversary expedition also laid the groundwork for an earthquake early warning system, thanks to a $5 million investment from the Government of British Columbia earlier in the year. A new Titan accelerometer at Barkley Canyon was the first of several seismic sensors that will be deployed on the Cascadia subduction zone over the next five years. These sensors will improve the accuracy of primary wave detections that can provide up to 90 seconds of advance warning to British Columbia residents of damaging ground shaking from the secondary wave.

Titan accelerometers are the work-horses of ONC's earthquake early warning system.

This coordinated effort was made possible with the support of new and longtime collaborators who provided ships, ROVs, engineering and expertise. During Leg One, cable solutions were provided by TE SubCom while cable installation was supported by Global Marine’s cable ship C/S Wave Venture, which was “critical to the success of an extremely challenging deployment operation”, according to ONC’s Adrian Round.

The C/S Wave Venture working closely alongside E/V Nautilus.

In a delicate dance involving two ships maneuvering less than 80 metres apart, the C/S Wave Venture achieved a first for ONC by successfully laying 18 km of steel-armoured, fibre-optic extension cable in the deep ocean. The exploration vessel E/V Nautilus, along with ROVs Hercules and Argus, played an important supporting role by monitoring the cable lays while conducting scientific research and providing state-of-the-art telepresence capabilities.

During Leg Two, the University of Alaska’s research vessel R/V Sikuliaq paired up with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s newly refurbished ROV Jason to deploy the large instrument platforms and sensor packages, and also conducted scientific research.

“As the operator of the R/V Sikuliaq, the University of Alaska School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences is honored and proud to work with ONC, and is particularly pleased to have the opportunity to strengthen this international effort,” says Dr. Bradley Moran, Dean of the University of Alaska School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

The University of Alaska's ice-class R/V Sikuliaq

Additional Expedition highlights:

Sampled and surveyed ocean environments at Endeavour in support of future planned expansions and ONC’s continuing partnership with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which manages the Endeavour marine protected area.
Redeployed a mooring in the Juan de Fuca Strait that supports data collection for the Capital Region District of Victoria.
Recovered and downloaded data from autonomous CTDs (measuring conductivity, temperature and depth, as well as salinity, density and pressure of water) at Barkley Canyon hydrates and the autonomous tsunami metre bottom pressure recorders at Cascadia Basin that included records from the 2015 Chile tsunami.
Deployed a larval colonization experiment for France’s Ifremer at Endeavour and recovered a larval colonization experiment for the International Network for Scientific Investigation of Deep-sea Ecosystems.
Gathered deep sea sediment samples as part of the Global Freezer Survey, an initiative led by INDEEP and Oregon State University to collect samples around the globe to map the genetic diversity of deep sea microbes on a worldwide scale.
Adapted to bad weather by conducting additional multi-beam, echo-sounder surveys which provided critical time series ocean floor mapping at the continental margin, and CTD surveys across Endeavour to track vent plumes.
Conducted sampling at all sites including water, tubeworms, hagfish, sediment push cores, water column and bottom video surveys.
Deployed scavenger bait traps for crabs and amphipods to collect grooved tanner crabs to investigate the role of methanotroph bacteria in their diet.
Conducted methane bubble surveys at Clayoquot Slope.
Deployed a low-frequency acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) in the Barkley Canyon axis for a full 1 km water current profile.
Recovered a vertical profiler system, enabling the necessary refurbishment for ONC’s offshore full water column profiling system.
Recovered shell experiments from Barkley Canyon hydrates.
Partially recovered the whalebone experiment.

INCISE Submarine Canyon Symposium in Victoria 25 - 27 July

vkeast@uvic.ca — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 00:15:28 +0000

According to recent studies, roughly 10,000 submarine canyons exist worldwide. Only 1% have been studied in any detail.

The exploration of submarine canyons reveals exuberant ecosystems with never-before-seen life forms and habitats. While the scientific understanding of canyons advances, so does the human footprint into the deep sea—with increasing demands for oil and gas, minerals and fisheries.

The scientific community has a responsibility to prepare an assessment of the role submarine canyons play in generating and maintaining deep-sea biodiversity and ecosystem function, in support of developing marine policies that define clear strategies for conservation.

JOIN US in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, from 25 to 27 July 2016!

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), an initiative of University of Victoria, is hosting the third international INCISE symposium—the first time in North America. ONC operates world-leading observatories in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

Regular rate - early bird $330
Regular rate - full $410
Student rate - early bird $220
Student rate - full $275
All fees in Canadian dollars.

Early bird discount fees apply until 25 May 2016.

Registration closes on 25 June 2016

Ocean Networks Canada’s NEPTUNE regional cabled observatory has four real-time monitoring pods in Barkley Submarine Canyon (map above).

Featuring Keynote Speakers from around the globe

Opening Keynote: a tribute to Francis Parker Shepard, Father of Marine Geology – Insights of his work on submarine canyons. By H. Gary Greene, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, California State University

Theme 1: Canyon processes in the space-time continuum (formation, evolution, circulation) By Susan Allen, University of British Columbia.

Theme 2: New ways to study submarine canyons: integrated programs, new technologies and coordinated monitoring efforts. By Veerle Huvenne, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.

Theme 3: Patterns in submarine canyons: role of scale and heterogeneity. By Thomas Schlacher, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia.

Theme 4: Physical and anthropogenic disturbance in submarine canyons, conservation and marine policy. The Gully Marine Protected Area: reflections on 20 years of conservation efforts for Canada’s largest submarine canyon. By Derek Fenton, Marine Protected Areas Program of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

SPECIAL KEYNOTE SESSION: The challenge of monitoring sediment flows within submarine canyons: lessons learned in Monterey Canyon. By Charlie Paull, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

For more information and to register for the symposium, visit INCISE.org or contact Fabio De Leo, staff scientist at Ocean Networks Canada

Barkley Canyon under the microscope

vkeast@uvic.ca — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 20:45:25 +0000

From submarine canyons to oxygen minimum zones, and from methane seeps to unique gas hydrate mounds, Barkley Canyon offers remarkable biodiversity in a wide range of depths and environments.

Wally the seafloor crawler explores the gas hydrate mounds at Barkley Canyon.

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) has sensors and instruments that span a range of ocean depths in Barkley Canyon. For the past five years, this area, which is one of the most diverse and deep ocean environments, has attracted scientists from around the world and across disciplines. In October, ONC hosted a Barkley Canyon Refresh Workshop that brought together researchers from across North America and Europe to review science goals, areas requiring additional study, and to develop a plan for the future of Barkley Canyon observing.

“This workshop was an excellent opportunity to engage the research community. They helped us take stock of the accomplishments to date and then to assess where the science will take us moving forward,” said ONC's Science Services Associate Director, Richard Dewey.

Barkley Canyon’s broad appeal

Barkley Canyon is an example of a submarine canyon and continental slope that collects a vast amount of data from eight different instrument platforms. These instruments support a multi-disciplinary range of core science themes, including

canyon and slope dynamics;
gas hydrates;
the use of (enhanced) mobile platforms such as Wally for hydrates research, with plans to use AUVs and/or gliders for spatial studies;
biodiversity in and around a canyon;
carbon exchange across the slope margin; and
benthic ecology and fisheries management studies.

Workshop participants expressed a strong desire to continue their research in the main instrumented sites of the upper slope, hydrates and on the canyon wall and canyon floor.

Scoping the future

Barkley Canyon's realtime data streaming was halted due to lost power and communications following a trawling incident in early 2015. While current plans for re-installation aim to have the site back online in summer 2016, this downtime provided an opportunity to engage with and learn from the researchers who use data collected from this region.

Recommendations for future study areas beyond the current footprint include instrumenting

the head (400 m) of the canyon;
the toe of the slope (both for dynamics and for seismic sensors); and
up (600 m) and down (1200 m) the canyon from the present boundaries (at approximately 1000 m depth)

The discussions and contributions to the workshop are being compiled into a report, which will be posted in the near future on the Barkley Canyon Working Group web page.

A community of Fragile Pink sea urchins thrives at Barkley Canyon Upper Slope.

A sea of crabs captured on camera!

vkeast@uvic.ca — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 21:00:54 +0000

High resolution video cameras on ONC’s seafloor observatories offer a rare glimpse of undersea life from the northeast Pacific Ocean. Anyone on the planet can visit these unique 24/7 live portals to view the mysterious undersea world. Once in a while, the keen eye of a citizen scientist observes something quite remarkable—like a mass migration involving thousands of tanner crabs.

“Why are these crabs massing at Barkley Canyon?” asked a postal worker from Minnesota. ONC staff scientist Fabio De Leo weighs in on this rarely viewed event.

ONC cameras record thousands of hours of video, all of which needs to be reviewed by human eyes—a daunting task for scientists.

Via the Internet, you can observe the world deep beneath the surface of the sea...with only a few clicks and a pair of sharp eyes.

Check Sights and Sounds for the live camera schedule
Help a real scientist in her work, by playing Digital Fishers
Related story: Crabs everywhere! A mystery caught on camera!

For further information about how ONC cameras are being used for deep sea research, contact Fabio De Leo, ONC Staff Scientist, Benthic Ecology

A two-ship expedition at Barkley Canyon

vkeast@uvic.ca — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 20:55:33 +0000

Updated July 2, 2015

On 11 January 2015, the link with Ocean Networks Canada’s Barkley Canyon node was lost, halting all data delivery from this site in the Northeast Pacific. Further investigation revealed that a fishing trawling gear had damaged the node and cut off communications to all sensors connected to the Barkley Canyon node.

Fig.1 –Barkley node (orange square) is the power and communications hub for ONC’s Barkley Canyon observatory site.

For locations like Barkley Canyon where active fishing occurs, ONC works to make fishers aware of observatories' installations—from posting notices to mariners and engaging in consultations with the fishing community, to installing trawl-resistant designs.

On 28 January 2015, the cable ship (C/S) Wave Venture set out from Victoria to conduct a survey of the damages at the Barkley Canyon site using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The ROV was used to confirm that the node was severely damaged and was rotated and shifted approximately two metres from its original location. It was clear that the node would require major repair.

Fig2. – Dive visuals from the research vessel (R/V) Dorado Discovery ROV investigating the damaged node and frame.

ONC’s Director of Operations, Adrian Round, immediately worked with his teams to prepare for a weeklong expedition to replace the node and repair any damaged cables connected to the 47 science instruments and supporting devices on the seafloor.

On 19 May 2015, the R/V Dorado Discovery, operated by Pelagic Research Services, set sail from Esquimalt with two ROVs on board, plus a four-person ONC operations team including expedition leader, Ian Kulin. Forty-eight hours later, the C/S Wave Venture departed to the site above the node, specifically to replace the damaged cables at the node.

Fig.3 – C/S Wave Venture pulls alongside the R/V Dorado Discovery for the complex repair mission at ONC’s Barkley Canyon observatory site.

The expedition achieved a number of firsts in ONC’s cabled observatory maintenance operations, including the Pelagic Research Services recovery and redeployment of a node pod, and the recovery and redeployment of cable termination assemblies by the C/S Wave Venture.

Fig.4 – The new Barkley Canyon node and deployment harness is lowered off the stern of the R/V Dorado Discovery.

Unfortunately, the repair mission was not yet completed during this expedition due to the failure of the main high voltage wet mate connector on the replacement node. All of the equipment was recovered from the seafloor after the connector failed so that planning could take place for a return repair expedition.

ONC's Marine Technology Centre in Sidney is playing host to all of the Barkley node equipment, including the main trawl resistant frame (13,500 lbs.), two node pods (10,500 lbs. each) and two of the cable termination assemblies.

ONC will return to Barkley Canyon during the annual summer maintenance expedition from late August to mid-September, and because the node equipment will not be ready for redeployment, will install high priority autonomous sensors to ensure data continuity at Barkley. Repairs will resume as soon as plans are in place to complete the repair.

This is the third trawl hit for ONC at Barkley. The first was in February 2011, when Barkley’s upper slope platform in 400m of water was flipped over. It took a year to re-establish live-streaming from this important deep sea research site. In 2013, also at the upper slope, the Offshore Profiling System was severed from its seafloor mooring. The profiler’s float and partial cable were found adrift and recovered during the May 2013 summer maintenance expedition aboard the CCGS Tully.

Quotes:

"What we have learned from this expedition will serve to improve the operations of the observatories and also demonstrate the ongoing evolution of technology and expertise that keeps ONC at the forefront of global ocean observation."

~ Adrian Round, Director, Observatory Operations

Crabs everywhere! A mystery caught on camera!

vkeast@uvic.ca — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:10:32 +0000

One of Ocean Networks Canada’s seafloor observatory video cameras has captured a natural phenomenon in the Northeast Pacific Ocean: Hundreds (if not thousands) of crabs crawling over the seabed amid strong currents, almost one thousand metres below the surface at Barkley Canyon.

The Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) cabled observatories located off Canada’s west coast provide a unique portal to the ocean via high resolution cameras streaming the undersea world in realtime to researchers around the world and anyone interested in life beneath the surface of the sea.

The keen eye of a watchful citizen scientist witnessed this crab migration one February afternoon, as it unfolded, in front of the live camera. What is even more extraordinary is our ocean citizen scientist lives deep in the American heartland, a thousand miles from the ocean. Michael, a post-office worker from Minnesota, alerted ONC’s science team via email and asked what might have caused this abundance of crabs.

According to ONC staff scientist and benthic ecologist Fabio De Leo, recent scientific papers published by the ONC research community (including Doya et al 2013) describe periods in Barkley Canyon when crabs are more abundant, and even dominate the rest of the fauna. But never before had we witnessed such extremely high numbers of one particular species: the grooved Tanner crab, or Chionoecetes tanneri.

ONC’s Barkley Canyon observatory site, POD 1 platform, on 12 January at 18:00:19 UTC, during the mysterious crab migration. Note the same location, observed on February 10.

Unravelling the mystery

ONC researchers began pondering what may have caused such a large crab fest. Could the crabs be fleeing an earthquake or underwater landslide? Barkley Canyon is an actively eroding underwater canyon where underwater landslides occur. A closer look at the video reveals that the crabs moved in a single direction, up the canyon toward shallower water depths. This unidirectional movement suggests that this is not a panic response to a sudden event, where the crabs would likely flee in multiple directions, but rather a mass migration.

A quick look at data from ONC instruments in Barkley Canyon shows little change in environmental factors such as bottom temperature, currents and dissolved oxygen during this migration time. So, we can safely conclude that the mass migration was not being triggered by environmental change.

Are the crabs responding to an internal stimulus to move to shallower depths? After viewing the video sequence University of Victoria researcher Verena Tunnicliffe suggested a possible link to the crab’s annual reproductive cycle.

According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), in March and April, female Tanner crabs, which live at deeper water depths than males, “move shallower for the purpose of egg release and mating.”

Connecting citizen scientists with the ocean science community

Much of our knowledge of Tanner crab biology comes from analysis of crabs caught in trap and trawl surveys at different depths and at different times of year. Direct observations of these crabs and other deep-water species are rare. Long-term video monitoring from cabled observatories such as ONC provides ocean scientists with a powerful new tool to study the movements of species as they migrate to and from deep ocean depths. Such information is important for biodiversity conservation and the sustainable management of deep sea fisheries.

This single observation by a citizen scientist underlines the power of cabled observatories to reveal previously unknown or suspected habits of deep sea creatures.

Ocean Networks Canada is delighted to connect citizen scientists with the science community through its network of live seafloor cameras. And for his timely and remarkable observation of Tanner crab migration, our thanks go to Michael in Minnesota, who demonstrated that even when access to the ocean is virtual, ocean discovery is still possible.

Ocean Networks Canada - barkley canyon

Expedition 2019: Highlights Story Map

Tags:

Categories:

New research shines a light on the importance of submarine canyons

Barkley Canyon new scientific findings:

Tags:

Categories:

New study quantifies natural flux of methane gas in the northeast Pacific

Tags:

Categories:

Deployed: the first spike for British Columbia's earthquake early warning system

Tags:

Categories:

Expedition 2016 Wrap: Bigger Footprint Enables Better Science

Tags:

Categories:

INCISE Submarine Canyon Symposium in Victoria 25 - 27 July

According to recent studies, roughly 10,000 submarine canyons exist worldwide. Only 1% have been studied in any detail.

JOIN US in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, from 25 to 27 July 2016!

Featuring Keynote Speakers from around the globe

Tags:

Categories:

Barkley Canyon under the microscope

Barkley Canyon’s broad appeal

Scoping the future

Tags:

Categories:

A sea of crabs captured on camera!

Tags:

Categories:

A two-ship expedition at Barkley Canyon

Updated July 2, 2015

Tags:

Categories:

Crabs everywhere! A mystery caught on camera!

Unravelling the mystery

Connecting citizen scientists with the ocean science community

Related links to explore:

Tags:

Categories: