Introducing Hakai Institute’s northern Strait of Georgia and Discovery Islands Ocean Monitoring Program

• Main Authors: Hare, Alexander, Hunt, Brian P. V., Jackson, Jennifer, Evans, Wiley, Jacob, Wayne, Brunsting, Ray, Oceanographic Team, Hakai Institute
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Western CEDAR 2016
• Subjects: Fresh Water Studies; Life Sciences; Marine Biology; Natural Resources and Conservation; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://cedar.wwu.edu/ssec/2016ssec/climate_change_ocean_acidification/22

The Hakai Institute, a non-profit independent research organization, established an ocean-monitoring program at the north end of the Strait of Georgia in late 2014. This program operates out of Hakai Institute’s Quadra Island field station and its footprint currently extends from the southern tip of Quadra Island to the southern entrance of Johnstone Strait, and across the transitional waters of the southern Discovery Islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The program is based on the principles of long-term ecological research and consists of oceanographic surveys that are performed year-round at regular frequencies from weekly to seasonally. During these surveys a comprehensive set of biological, chemical and physical oceanographic parameters are measured through CTD, Niskin bottle and zooplankton net deployments. Additional data are also provided by a shore-based continuous-monitoring flow-through CTD system and an autonomous CTD sensor node fixed on the seabed near Quadra Island. This program is a component of a larger oceanographic monitoring program at the Hakai Institute that involves similar oceanographic surveys at Calvert Island on the B.C. central coast and at the north end of Johnstone Strait. Hakai’s Quadra Island-based oceanographic program now produces high spatial and temporal resolution time-series data in support of multidisciplinary science, such as ocean acidification and salmon early marine survival programs at the Hakai Institute, as well as numerous targeted investigations led by research scientists at Canadian and U.S universities. A strong data-management team at the Hakai Institute provides all datasets to researchers worldwide through the Hakai Data Portal, and all real-time measurements through the Hakai Sensor Network. This presentation will introduce Hakai’s Quadra based ocean-monitoring program, present time series data from the northern Strait of Georgia, and highlight data handling and access by the international research community.