Canada’s most advanced interactive Seafloor
Observatory launches in British Columbia

Global Marine and the University of Victoria begin
pioneering research project for the world of marine science and oceanography

Port of Victoria, British Columbia: Global Marine Systems Limited, the market leader in marine cable installation and maintenance for the telecommunications industry, in partnership with The University of Victoria, is pleased to announce the launch of the VENUS (Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea) project. The launch event takes place today, Wednesday 16th November aboard Cable Ship Wave Venture, captained by Commander David Jeffrey.

VENUS will pioneer the use of fibre-optic cabling technology to provide a real-time data feed of images, sound and scientific measurements from the sea floor which, from January 2006, can be viewed live over the internet. The project is based in the waters around Southern Vancouver Island, starting with the Saanich Inlet and will then move onto the Strait of Georgia.

Previously, marine scientists have broadly used two main methods for collecting data from the ocean floor – either periodically recovering measurements from fixed and floating data collection buoys or developing and building their own instruments, which are then positioned on the seafloor and recovered for later analysis.

Instead, VENUS will provide a breadth of real time data that will cover areas including ocean physics, sediment studies, the biological distribution and interaction between marine life, bioacoustics, fish migratory patterns and plankton distributions. The scientific node, which enables the seafloor observatory to process this diverse range of data, was provided by the Canadian firm OceanWorks, who specialise in manned and unmanned subsea work systems.

"The VENUS project represents a step change for the world of marine science and oceanography, which will help improve the way marine scientists observe oceans in the future.” said Dr Phil Hart, Director of Engineering at Global Marine. “Current data collection methods provide a snapshot view only, whereas the VENUS observatory can be considered as being like a continuous film, which will allow more reliable long term observations to be made. Global Marine is delighted to be working with The University of Victoria on the VENUS project and is keen to be an active player in the broader underwater observatory market"

"The installation of the VENUS observatory is a scientific milestone for UVic, for Canada and indeed for the world," said UVic President Dr. David Turpin. "VENUS builds on UVic's recognized strengths in ocean sciences and we're very proud of the hard work, strong partnerships, and innovative thinking that have brought us to this exciting threshold."

Dr Verena Tunnicliffe, VENUS Project Director at The University of Victoria, said, “It’s an exciting moment for us, and the event marks the realisation of a project that originated roughly five years ago. VENUS will not only enable marine scientists to interact with the ocean through their instruments in real time but, by broadcasting our results live over the internet, will make the world of oceanography accessible to a far wider audience.”

The VENUS project broadcast starts in early January 2006 and can be viewed live at www.venus.uvic.ca.

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For more information on Global Marine please contact:
Deborah Bartlett
Marketing & Communications
Global Marine Systems Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 1245 702105
Email: deborah.bartlett@globalmarinesystems.com