SEOS scientists participate in cruise on "Google Ship" to map Oxygen on Vancouver Island shelf

SEOS Professor Jody Klymak was a principal investigator, and SEOS Adjunct Professor Richard Dewey of Ocean Networks Canda was Chief Scientist, on a cruise to map water masses and oxygen on the Vancouver Island shelf. They embarked on R/V Falkor, a ship operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, established by Eric Schmidt of Google on a two week multidisciplinary cruise.

The workhorse on the cruise was Prof. Klymak's Moving Vessel Profiler, which performed over 2500 vertical casts to measure salinity, temperature and oxygen.  Combined with bottle data from CTDs collected by UBC PI Susan Allen, and DFO PI Stephen Romaine, the mapping will lead to a new understanding of circulation on the biologically productive shelf just west of Port Renfrew.  

There was a blog, including entries by SEOS Ocean Science Minor student Brianna Cerkiewicz, that does a good job of documenting the cruise activities

The next leg of the cruise will be under the leadership of SEOS Professor and ONC Director of Engagement, Kim Juniper, and will use ROPOS, Canada's unerwater Remotely Operated Vehicle, to study seafloor flora and fauna and how low-oxygen zones mapped in the first cruise impact their distribution.