New $25M facility allows Canada's ocean scientists, military to share research

A new $25-million marine research centre opened Monday in Dartmouth, N.S., to co-ordinate the so‐ phisticated underwater platforms used by Canada to gather ocean data.

The Facility for Intelligent Marine Systems brings to‐ gether researchers from Fish‐ eries and Oceans, Natural Re‐ sources Canada, and De‐ fence Research and Develop‐ ment Canada into one place.

"These researchers will be leading the way in testing new systems to observe Canada's marine environ‐ ment," Dartmouth MP Dar‐ ren Fisher said at the facility's official opening.

"They will have an un‐ precedented opportunity to collaborate, to share ideas, tools, infrastructure in a meaningful way that is sure to benefit everyone in‐ volved."

The case for co-opera‐ tion

All three federal depart‐ ments use uncrewed gliders and remotely operated vehi‐ cles for their own purposes: DFO to monitor ocean condi‐ tions, the military to listen for friends and adversaries, and Natural Resources for seabed mapping.

The new research centre, located at the Bedford Insti‐ tute of Oceanography, is in‐ tended for more efficient use of available machinery.

WATCH | New $25M fa‐ cility allows Canada's ocean scientists, military to share research:

"We can put sensors on that measure the ocean as well as, say, acoustic sensors that listen for things that are in the ocean - whether that be whales or ships or other sound sources - and then we can not only share the data that comes out of that for our own purposes, but also take advantage of the logis‐ tics that are involved and the expertise," said scientist Clark Richards, a physical oceanographer at Fisheries and Oceans.

The facility is not securityclassified although some of the sensors used by the mili‐ tary and the data collected

may be restricted.

Mapping 'our own back‐ yard'

Rear Admiral Josee Kurtz, commander of Maritime Forces Atlantic, said the focus is on seabed mapping "our own backyard" as a changing climate makes the Arctic in‐ creasingly accessible.

"It's really important to partner up with DFO and NR‐ Can [Natural Resources Canada] so that we can con‐ tinue to monitor that envi‐ ronment and understand it a little bit better," said Kurtz.

"So that when we, the navy, go up North to estab‐ lish our presence in defence of our sovereignty, we can do it with the best possible tech‐ nology either fitted in our ships [or] embarked in our ships' remote equipment that we can leave there, gath‐ er information, bring it back, analyze. So that next time we go, our presence there is as assertive as can be."

'What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic'

Working with Defence Re‐ search and Development Canada taking measuremen‐ ts in the Arctic will help un‐ derstand what is happening far to the south on Canada's East Coast, said Richards.

The outflow from the Arc‐ tic Ocean flows into Baffin Bay along the Labrador coast around the Grand Banks and onto the Scotian Shelf.

"These changing

Arctic conditions are impacting re‐ gions further downstream. What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic," said Richards.

"We definitely see that more and more as we see less ice. It means more fresh water. That fresh water gets transported, but it's hard to track where it goes unless you're actually out there fre‐ quently enough to make those measurements."

DFO Maritimes science di‐ rector Francine Desharnais cited an upcoming mission in the Gully - a deep canyon and marine protected area off Nova Scotia - as an exam‐ ple of collaboration with Nat‐ ural Resources Canada.

"We work with NRCan and share data. NRCan being in‐ terested in the seabed and for us in the ocean ecosys‐ tems," she said.

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