To find the future of British Columbia’s marine economy you might just need a submarine – and a deep-water one at that.
The traditional view of British Columbians as hewers of wood and drawers of water is experiencing a fundamental sea change.
Imagine a means to identify and monitor changes in the geophysical, climatological and biological nature of the ocean floor as they happen. Imagine a method to follow variations in fish stocks, predict earthquakes and measure shipping traffic consistently and accurately.
Concepts too big to conceive? Not for the cluster of brainpower behind the Venus and Neptune Projects, now in progress under a body of water near you.
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| Bayne Stanley photo, Business Edge |
| Andrew Walls of the Innovation and Science Council of B.C. says project requires ‘more market pull than technology push’. |
“We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of our own ocean,” says Andrew Walls, ocean and marine sector development officer at the Innovation and Science Council of British Columbia (ISCBC). “Every bit of knowledge we have gained so far has been of the snapshot variety, sometimes literally.”
Until now, almost all ocean activity has been monitored from the surface of the ocean, usually from ships that drop instruments to take readings or monitor the underwater world with sonic and radar devices.
ISCBC was created as a Crown agency by the provincial legislature in 1978. Its mandate is to help give British Columbia the resources and the drive to succeed in the rapidly growing global marketplace, particularly through the support science and technology programs.
Walls notes that in 1993, the then-named B.C. Science Council issued the Spark Report, which forecast an opportunity to realize a 50-per-cent growth in the value of British Columbia’s marine economy. While the report noted that the marine sector was under-performing, it also identified the enormous potential for the future – deep in the waters off the B.C. coast.
For the past several years, ISCBC has been a partner in a pair of projects that will lead to a much clearer view than has ever been possible of Canada’s underwater frontiers.
A new project currently under way may just change the face of B.C.’s marine economy forever. Industry, technology and educational institutions are teaming together to pin their hopes on the namesake of the morning star.
But VENUS (Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea) is emerging not on a clamshell, but instead from the braintrust at the University of Victoria’s school of earth and ocean sciences.
VENUS is a proposed network of instruments laid along the ocean floor in B.C.’s coastal waters. Fibre-optic cables will transmit measurements, images and sound to scientists – and ultimately the public – in real -time. The cable will also carry all required power for instruments, lights and robots. The VENUS project’s three cables will run across the Saanich Inlet, the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
“Most people don’t think of B.C. as a maritime province, but the truth is that most of the industries in this province have come from the sea,” says Chris Campbell, a consultant to offshore oil and gas, ocean technology and aquaculture sectors, and author of an action plan for the Pacific Ocean Technology Cluster. “Even the forestry industry has been maritime-based.”
Campbell sees this cluster as an example of how public and private interests can work together to provide integrated technologies and support for management of marine operations around the globe – and at the same time, ensure sustainability of coastal communities and maritime economies.
“I’ve worked on both coasts and was vice-president of the Marine Institute in Newfoundland,” Campbell says.
“As a consultant with the industry, I’m excited to see the energy and focus of the ocean tech sector coming together to create something really unique.”
Campbell notes that ocean industries contribute $20 billion annually to the Canadian economy and add up to 350,000 part-time and full-time jobs, especially in coastal communities.
“The ocean technology industry supplies technology (products and services) to enable the sustainability, profitability and safety of ocean activities.”
VENUS is a true cluster initiative, a joint project of the University of Victoria, earth and ocean sciences at UBC, Dalhousie University, Geological Survey of Canada, Canadian Astrophysical Data Centre and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. It’s gaining a high enough profile that the private sector is looking on with interest.
“I like to say the science council’s role in endeavours such as VENUS is that we are leading from behind,” says Walls. “Something like this requires more of a market pull than a technology push.”
He adds that there are about 150 ocean technology companies in B.C., “and the potential for marketing this technology to the rest of the world is tremendous.”
The financial risks are high, but the opportunity for returns to the B.C. technology sector could be enormous. The eyes of the ocean technology world are focused on the coast of B.C. as this unprecedented project sets sail.
And hand in hand with VENUS is an even larger-scale project, an international undertaking known as NEPTUNE (North-East Pacific Time-Series Undersea Networked Experiment).
The goal of the NEPTUNE project is to establish a regional ocean observatory in an area off the Oregon coast and northward into B.C. waters. An anticipated 3,000-kilometre network of fibre-optic cable will encircle and cross the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate in the northeast Pacific Ocean, an area roughly 500 kilometres by 1,000 kilometres.
An estimated 30 to 50 experimental stations will be established in various locations along the network, enabling scientists, researchers and eventually the public to access real-time information about monitored activities along the seabed. The cables will be serviced by multi-purpose underwater robotic vehicles that can draw power from the cables and maintain and make repairs.
“Ocean exploration used to be big white ships that dangled their equipment from a wire,” notes Campbell.
“The best we could ever hope to get was a snapshot of a moment, that was by its nature immediately out of date. For the first time, we will not have to wait for data from recovered instruments – it will be delivered immediately as events in the ocean unfold.”
For the first time, researchers as well as decision-makers and shore-based learners of all ages will be able to participate in detailed studies and experiments on a wide area of seafloor and ocean for decades rather than just hours or days.
The network will provide unprecedented multi-disciplinary measurements ranging from microns to kilometres on temporal scales anywhere from microseconds to decades.
VENUS and NEPTUNE could mean the exploration of one of earth’s final frontiers to the benefit of both public knowledge and private-sector investment – and spell an ocean of change for Canada’s underwater technology sector.
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