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Tempo-Mini Inhabits the Hot Vents

Overview

Located on mid-ocean ridges, hot vent ecosystems are characterized by extreme environments and unique organisms, which don't depend on sunlight - a rare feat! Photosynthesis is the way plants convert energy to food, but deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities are sustained by a special group of microorganisms, which carry out a process known as chemosynthesis. This allows the bacteria and archaea to produce organic matter for themselves and the animals using energy from chemical reactions that occur as hot vent fluids mix with seawater. Several studies have shown that the distribution of vent communities and their composition are strongly influenced by local geological, physical and chemical processes. We know very little about the day-to-day life of hydrothermal vent organisms or how these particular ecosystems evolve over time as a result of the various processes affecting them. During the last few years, engineering and science teams at Ifremer, France's national public institute for marine research have developed Tempo-Mini: a custom-designed instrument package for real-time monitoring of hydrothermal vent communities and their environment. Tempo-Mini integrates the following custom instrumentation: - 2 megapixel streaming video camera with embedded event detection; - 6 LED lights; - Aanderaa oxygen optode (used to measure oxygen concentrations as well as temperatures between 0 and 40°C); - 10m-long, 10-sensor temperature probe array; - CHEMINI Fe iron concentration chemical analyzer. To keep Tempo-Mini clean, an efficient and innovative anti-biofouling system protects the camera porthole, lights, and optical oxygen sensor. Tempo-Mini is remotely controlled by researchers in France via the Internet. Software at our Port Alberni shore station acquires the data and keeps all the measurements in order. In 2008, Ifremer collaborated with NEPTUNE and VENUS networks to collect live data from the seafloor in Saanich Inlet near Sidney, BC. After this 5-month test in relatively shallow water (100m), Tempo-Mini was recovered in February 2009. In September 2011, an updated version (Auffret et al., 2010) was connected to the NEPTUNE observatory. Its principal objective is to gather the data needed to describe how physical, geological and chemical variations influence the structure and growth of hydrothermal communities at Endeavour vent field in the northeast Pacific Ocean.

CFI Supports Future Endeavour Research

Overview

Ocean Networks Canada is kicking off a year of exciting research and innovation at the Endeavour node of the NEPTUNE observatory with a show of support from the Canadian Government. Today’s $1.62 million funding commitment through the **Canada Foundation for Innovation’s 2012 Leading Edge Fund** is intended for future study and continuous monitoring of the Endeavour Segment. "This funding support will nearly triple Ocean Networks Canada's current instrumentation at this spectacular location in the deep ocean and will provide a new way of monitoring the health of remote marine protected areas.” says Dr. Kim Juniper, NEPTUNE Canada's Associate Director of Science. "It's a huge vote of confidence in the technology we offer to the global research community." Located more than two kilometres below the surface, the Endeavour site is set in a challenging mid-ocean ridge environment featuring hot vent fields and actively spreading ocean crust, approximately 300 km offshore Vancouver Island in the northeast Pacific Ocean. The University of Victoria’s Dr. Laurence Coogan will lead a consortium of ten principal researchers from seven institutions across North America in this $4 million initiative to further investigate the hot fluids discharging from a secton of the volcanic chain that encircles the Earth beneath the oceans. Principal users include: - Laurence Coogan, University of Victoria - David Butterfield, University of Washington - Christopher German, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution - Kathryn Gillis, University of Victoria - Mark Hannington, University of Ottawa - Kim Juniper, University of Victoria - Marvin Lilley, University of Washington - Anna Metaxas, Dalhousie University - William Seyfried, University of Minnesota - William Wilcock, University of Washington **Dr. Laurence Coogan on future research plans at Endeavour**
In the following clips, Dr. Coogan provides an overview of the project: **What does the Leading Edge Fund mean for future research at the Endeavour site?**

Expedition sails to Endeavour hot vents

Overview

With final preparations underway, Ocean Networks Canada is set to embark on a week-long voyage to NEPTUNE’s three deep sea sites: Endeavour, Cascadia Basin, and Clayoquot Slope. This second leg of the Wiring the Abyss 2014 summer expedition will run from May 16-24 with dives running 24/7. According to Expedition Leader Adrian Round, the CCGS Tully plans to depart from the jetty in Pat Bay at 18:00 PDT Friday evening. He anticipates dive operations beginning the morning of Sunday 18 May, with the remotely operated underwater vehicle ROPOS touching down on the seafloor at Endeavour around 10:00PDT. The Endeavour site of the NEPTUNE cabled ocean observatory offers a rare opportunity to see some of the most unusual deep sea communities on our planet. Beginning May 18, we will be streaming live video through the Wiring the Abyss 2014 website. The video highlights below are a sneak preview of what you may encounter during a live dive to Endeavour—if you tune in! [Endeavour Archive Videos](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL84B4C76ABEFABB07) from Ocean Networks Canada on Youtube.

A Conversation with ONC Visiting Scholar, Dr. Tom Kwasnitschka

Overview

**Many of our colleagues are oceanographers, ocean scientists, biologists, geophysicists, etc. How would you describe your specialized profession?** I would say I am a deep sea volcanologist, seafloor surveyor and science visualizer. **Did you have a moment in your childhood when you knew what professional direction your life would take? Did you have a “fall in love with the ocean” moment?** I probably have to cite the usual influences like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jacques Cousteau, and Bob Ballard (yes, I am that young). But I knew pretty much at age 15 that I wanted to do what I do now. **What path led you to choose robotics and data visualization (projected video environments/virtual reality/3D photogrammetry) in a marine environment?** First, I wanted to be a submarine engineer, but I am bad at math. Then I wanted to become a submarine captain, but naval subs have no windows. So I ended up as a scientist, which is more agreeable and I got those windows. **You have a variety of exciting research interests. Is there a central theme that links them all?** My goal is to provide the highest possible detail of the seafloor. Doing so seems to be most rewarding at deep sea volcanoes. **What makes you most excited about your research, or your future direction?** The great challenge we still face in marine geology is to actually transport ourselves to the seafloor. We now recreate the marine environment in virtual simulators that finally give us a feeling of our presence down there.

Van Aqua takes audiences to extreme deep ocean environments

Overview

On 7 October, the Vancouver Aquarium will open its first deep sea exhibit featuring the remarkable “black smokers" located 300 km offshore Vancouver Island. Known as the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents, they became Canada’s first marine protected area, designated in 2003 by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Ocean Networks Canada’s cabled observatory site at Endeavour provides realtime data, including live and recorded video, to further our understanding of this extraordinary region. The video shows how life thrives in this unique environment, fuelled by the chemical energy of 350 degree Celsius fluids released from the hydrothermal vents. ![VanAqua_hotvents_exhibit_0.png](https://cdn.onc-prod.intergalactic.space/Van_Aqua_hotvents_exhibit_0_0bc06d397b.png) The new exhibit is part of Vancouver Aquarium’s Wild Coast gallery. It stands eight feet tall and represents the tall Mothra Vent field, which rises up to 20 metres off the seafloor. The display was fabricated from 3D renderings provided by ONC’s visiting scholar from GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany—Tom Kwasnitschka. Tom worked with imagery gathered during a 1997 expedition where the University of Washington’s Deborah Kelley and others took 73 electronic still images using the remotely operated vehicle Jason and created a photomosaic of Faulty Towers, part of the Mothra Field. Jeff Heywood, Director of Content and Digital Experience at the Aquarium said “this was a very unique project—to create a fabrication from a scientist’s 3D renderings. I think the aquarium’s over a million annual visitors will be surprised to find out that these amazing Mount Doom like structures exist just 300 km offshore and that they are in Canada’s first marine protected area.” ![VanAqua_model.png](https://cdn.onc-prod.intergalactic.space/Van_Aqua_model_37a9270bc8.png) The project is a collaboration among Vancouver Aquarium, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Ocean Networks Canada.

Ocean Networks Canada given international boost by BBC’s “Blue Planet II”

Overview

Ocean Networks Canada’s international profile has been given a boost—potentially reaching billions of people across the planet—as ONC video and audio highlights are featured as part of “[Blue Planet II](http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/blue-planet-ii),” the British Broadcasting Corp.’s new natural history TV series, and in the lead-up to the show’s start on Sunday. ONC provided underwater video of the Endeavour hydrothermal vents for the second episode (“[The Deep](http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/blue-planet-ii/the-deep)”) of “Blue Planet II” via ONC’s SeaTube video player that let BBC producers search and watch ONC’s archive of deep-sea videos. The TV series starts in Britain on Oct. 29, with the second episode on Nov. 5. The show will appear [in Canada on BBC Earth in early 2018](http://bbcearth.ca/show/planet-earth-blue-planet-ii/).

Endeavour expansion during Leg 1 of Expedition 2018: Wiring the Abyss

Overview

Following the successful completion of Wiring the Abyss Leg 1 aboard Canadian Coast Guard ship (CCGS) John P. Tully, the Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) team are busy preparing for Leg 2 of our annual offshore expedition to install and improve cabled observatory infrastructure, 21 July - 4 August. The upcoming 2-week expedition aboard exploration vessel (E/V) Nautilus will complete many of the installations deployed aboard CCGS Tully (Figure 1).

Endeavour site records the highest level of earthquake activity in 20 years

Overview

A peak of more than 200 earthquakes per hour were detected this week at a deep sea site within Ocean Network Canada’s northeast Pacific seafloor observatory, the highest rate of earthquakes observed in this region [since 2005](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022JB025662). On March 6, 2024, ONC’s real time monitoring network detected significant tectonic activity including an approximately 4.1 magnitude earthquake at the North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked Experiments (NEPTUNE) observatory’s Endeavour site, at a depth of approximately 5 kilometres and 240 kilometres offshore of Vancouver Island. Increased earthquake rates have been observed at the site since 2018, with the March 6 peak swarm following several days of increased small earthquake frequency.