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The Bonne Bay Marine Station
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| The Bonne Bay Marine Station |
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Research endeavors at Memorial are supported by state-of-the-art equipment, specialized technical services and an array of research facilities. In June 2002 a new marine research and teaching facility located on the west coast of Newfoundland will be available to Memorial researchers. The Bonne Bay Marine Station will provide both academic and non-academic programming and will help in the development of new and innovative research and teaching programs in the area. The station replaces the biology research field station that had been in operation for more than 30 years in Norris Point. The laboratories, aquarium, meeting rooms, dock and boat, ocean observatory, accommodation wing and other facilities will provide key resources for researchers and those interested in learning about the marine ecosystem of Bonne Bay. The construction of the field station was support by the Gros Morne Co-operative Association, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and Memorial University.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) awarded $1.8 million to develop a real-time ocean observatory at the Bonne Bay Marine Research Centre. Connected to the station will be a sub-sea observatory providing real-time oceanographic and meteorological data. This observatory will used to understand the influence of the physical environment on marine organisms. Dr. Brad de Young, Physics and Physical Oceanography, is the program director.
"The observatory will include an underwater station, a communications cable link to the Bonne Bay Marine Station and a small oceanographic boat," he said. "The deployed instrumentation will measure water properties and include innovative video and acoustic technologies that will permit studies of organisms previously poorly observed and scientifically neglected, for example, epibenthic zooplankton populations." The state-of-the-art, in situ instrument array will include direct water property measurements, acoustic sensors for determination of currents, bubble distribution and plankton abundance, video technologies for determination of plankton and benthos species abundance, dissolved gas, nutrient and light sensors. The data will be transmitted through the communications cable to the marine station and will be available to researchers in real-time on the Internet. The observatory will have a modular design so that individual serviceable components may easily be exchanged or serviced. The Bonne Bay Marine Station will provide a secure site for the power supply, computer control and data acquisition for the sub-sea node. The computers will collect the incoming data and configure it for transmission over the Internet. The data will be made available for scientific and educational use in (near) real time through a web site. "We will enhance the public outreach of marine science research at the Bonne Bay Marine Station and support public interpretation at the Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland," Dr. de Young said.
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