NEPTUNE Questions and Answers
What is NEPTUNE?
The North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Networked
Experiments project will be the world’s largest cable-linked
ocean observatory. NEPTUNE will give scientists, educators,
policy-makers and the general public a new way of studying
and understanding issues critical to our survival, such
as earthquakes, fish conservation, climate change, and
energy sources.
Where will NEPTUNE be located?
The NEPTUNE project will lay 3,000 km of powered fibre-optic
cable over the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, a 200,000 sq
km region off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington
and Oregon. This tectonic plate is the smallest of the
dozen major plates that make up the planet’s surface
and offers a full range of Earth and ocean processes for
observation.
How will NEPTUNE work?
The NEPTUNE cable network will feature 30 or more seafloor “laboratories,” or
nodes, spaced about 100 km apart and up to 3 km deep. From
these nodes, land-based scientists will control and monitor
sampling instruments, video cameras and remotely operated
vehicles as they collect data from the ocean surface to
beneath the seafloor. Instruments will be interactive—scientists
will instruct them to respond to events such as storms,
plankton blooms, fish migrations, earthquakes, tsunamis
and underwater volcanic eruptions, as they happen.
How will NEPTUNE information be relayed to shore?
Information and images gathered by NEPTUNE instruments
will flow instantly via the Internet to shore stations
in Victoria, British Columbia, and Nedonna Beach, Oregon.
In this way, NEPTUNE will bring the Pacific Ocean online
to laboratories, classrooms and living rooms around the
world.
Why do we need NEPTUNE?
Knowledge gained through NEPTUNE will be applied to many
global problems and opportunities. It will improve the
measurement of fish stocks and suggest what levels of harvest
are sustainable. It will provide an earlier warning of
earthquakes, tsunamis and other hazards to human safety.
It will improve models for climate prediction. And it will
help scientists investigate new offshore hydrocarbon sources—known
as gas hydrates—and other undersea resources.
How is NEPTUNE an improvement over current methods of
observing the ocean?
Traditional methods of ocean exploration use ships to
study the ocean over short periods of time. NEPTUNE frees
scientists from the limitations of ship schedules, bad
weather, and intermittent data. Through the Internet, NEPTUNE
will provide information and images live from the ocean
depths, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the next
30 years or more.
Who is involved in the NEPTUNE project?
NEPTUNE is a joint U.S.-Canada venture led by the
University of Victoria in Canada and the University of
Washington in the U.S. This international partnership involves
three other major institutions: Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at
the California Institute of Technology, and the Monterey
Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The Institute for Pacific
Ocean Science and Technology (Canada) played a key role
in the early stages.
Are there other Canadian institutions involved?
The University of Victoria leads a consortium of 12 Canadian
universities. The other universities are: Memorial; Dalhousie;
Université du Québec à Montréal,
Université du Québec à Rimouski; Laval;
Guelph; Toronto; Waterloo; Manitoba; Simon Fraser; and
British Columbia. Also associated with the Canadian portion
of NEPTUNE are: Fisheries and Oceans Canada; the Geological
Survey of Canada; the National Research Council of Canada;
the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre; the Department
of National Defence; Parks Canada; and the Bamfield Marine
Science Centre.
How much does NEPTUNE cost?
The total cost of constructing and installing the NEPTUNE
network is estimated at
$300 million Cdn.
How is NEPTUNE financed?
The Canadian portion of NEPTUNE is funded by $31.9 million
from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and $30.5 million
from the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund. Several
other agencies provided support in the planning phase.
More than $33 million Cdn in funding for the U.S. portion
of NEPTUNE has come from the National Science Foundation,
the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, the W.M.
Keck Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation,
and the NEPTUNE partner institutions. U.S. partners will
apply in the next year for another $200 million Cdn in
grants. However, the Canadian portion of the NEPTUNE project
will go ahead, even if receipt of U.S. funds is delayed.
What sort of research will be done using NEPTUNE?
NEPTUNE’s unprecedented access to the deep sea will
increase our understanding of the oceans in the same way
that the Hubble Telescope is revolutionizing our knowledge
of outer space. The four major research themes of NEPTUNE
are: the structure and seismic behaviour of the ocean crust;
seabed chemistry and geology; ocean climate change and
its effects on marine life at all depths; and the diversity
of deep sea ecosystems.
Who will use NEPTUNE?
Once constructed, NEPTUNE will be available to the international
research community to conduct oceanographic experiments.
And its archives will be an invaluable, lasting resource
for scientists, educators, students and policy-makers everywhere.
What are VENUS and MARS?
Though funded separately, VENUS and MARS are related projects
that will serve as testbeds for NEPTUNE.
- VENUS (the Victoria
Experimental Network Under the Sea), led by the University
of Victoria, will be a shallow-water
testbed for NEPTUNE. Linked by 70 km of fibre-optic cable,
VENUS will provide continuous biological, oceanographic
and geological data from two locations off the southern
British Columbia coast: Saanich Inlet, and the Strait of
Georgia. The first cable—in Saanich
Inlet—is expected to be laid in November 2005. For
more information on VENUS visit: www.venus.uvic.ca.
- MARS
(the Monterey Accelerated Research System) will be
a deep-water test bed for NEPTUNE. It is currently
under development in the U.S. by the Monterey Bay
Marine Research Institute and will involve 62 km of cable
in
a deep canyon in Monterey Bay, California. For more
information on MARS visit: www.mbari.org/mars.
Why are we proceeding with NEPTUNE now?
The oceans feed us, shape our weather and carry our ships,
yet we know surprisingly little about the complex geological,
chemical and biological processes that take place beneath
the waves. Meanwhile, climate change is affecting fisheries,
human populations are expanding in earthquake-prone coastal
regions, and resource extraction is moving into the deep
sea. NEPTUNE will be the first of many large-scale cabled
ocean observatories around the world. There’s much
to be gained by being among the scientific and industrial
pioneers.
How will NEPTUNE benefit Canadian science and technology?
Participation in NEPTUNE will secure Canada’s place
in the front ranks of ocean science. Considerable national
and international research talent and expenditures will
be focused off the B.C. coast. The Canadian marine technology
industry—especially in B.C.—will develop new
products, services and expertise that can be exported to
future ocean observatories elsewhere in the world. NEPTUNE
will directly generate jobs in information technology,
engineering, and research and support services. Indirect
benefits are expected in the subsea, robotics, communications,
education and tourism sectors.
How will the public benefit from NEPTUNE?
The Canadian public will share in discoveries from one
of the last unexplored places on Earth. Via the Internet,
data and imagery from NEPTUNE will be relayed in real time
to science centres, aquariums, museums, universities, schools
and living rooms across the nation and around the world
in real time. Data and imagery will be packaged into a
wealth of educational, tourist, and public programming.
NEPTUNE will inspire a new generation of ocean scientists
and engineers.
When will NEPTUNE be operational?
It is expected to begin operation in 2007.
Where can I find out more about NEPTUNE?
Visit the NEPTUNE Canada Web site at www.neptunecanada.ca and
the U.S. NEPTUNE Web site at www.neptune.washington.edu.
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