As we celebrate Canada’s 150 years of confederation, we must do so with full knowledge and pride that our country has been home to Indigenous peoples with advanced governing structures for tens of thousands of years.
Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) celebrates the country’s founding peoples year-round by supporting communities as they continue to inform themselves about their coasts and ocean waters. We do this through ONC’s community observatories along British Columbia’s coast and by ensuring that science is conducted with traditional knowledge (Figure 1).
Figure 1. ONC collaborated with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council to create a deck of 36 Ocean Knowledge Cards. Highlighting sea life found along Vancouver Island’s west coast, the cards show how the Nuu-chah-nulth people harvest and prepare these sea foods and their cultural significance.
To kick off Canada’s sesquicentennial on the west coast, ONC channeled #Canada150 celebrations into the deep sea during its most recent expedition aboard exploration vessel (E/V) Nautilus.
Figure 2. A Canada150 logo on a camera tripod soon to be deployed in over 1km of water at Barkley Canyon.
To validate that Canada’s ocean is part of the celebration, we emblazoned maple leaf stickers onto one of the remotely operated vehicles and many of the instruments (Figure 2). Now we’re wondering if they’re the deepest observances of #Canada150 in the country…?
Watch our videos (Figures 3 & 4) to find out more.
Figure 3. VIDEO: "Hercules takes #Canada150 into the abyss."
Figure 3. VIDEO: "Hercules takes #Canada150 into the abyss."
Figure 4. VIDEO: "2.6 km below sea level: is this deepest Canada150 logo in the country?"
While recovering our beloved deep sea crawler Wally for a refit, we couldn't resist leaving a #Canada150 marker in the Barkley Canyon gas hydrate field.
No matter where you are on 1 July, we invite you to take a moment to appreciate Canada’s beautiful ocean and coastline: the world’s longest at 202,080 km.
