Increased Marine Environmental Monitoring Capability with the Purchase of Four Scientific Buoys

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is increasing its marine environmental monitoring capability with the acquisition of four new automated oceanographic buoys. In addition to measuring a multitude of meteorological and oceanographic parameters at the water surface, these buoys will independently collect temperature and salinity profiles to a depth of 200 m without human intervention, and transmit the data in real time.

The new buoys are part of the Department's Atlantic Zone Monitoring Program's sampling strategy, which, since 1998, has been assessing the oceanographic conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Scotian Shelf, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Shelf. The program aims to better understand, describe and predict the state of the marine ecosystem, as well as to quantify the changes observed in the physical, chemical and biological properties of the ocean, whether they be seasonal, yearly, or over longer periods. In fact, the buoys are floating laboratories that operate 24 hours a day. They will be invaluable to the scientific community for studying climate change and monitoring the state of the ocean.