A Halifax-based aquatic analysis community that gathers data from the depths of the ocean utilizing gliders and marine animals has secured an extra $38.5 million in funding, permitting them to develop their work for years to come back.
The Ocean Monitoring Community (OTN) began at Dalhousie College in 2008. It builds and deploys Canadian-designed acoustic receivers and oceanographic monitoring tools world wide.
Its sensors observe the motion of greater than 100 at-risk and commercially vital species, together with North Atlantic proper whales and Atlantic bluefin tuna.
Sara Iverson, the scientific director at OTN, mentioned this funding is a “big deal” in understanding marine animal populations which are very important to wholesome ecosystems, meals safety and socioeconomic advantages.
“There is a continued and accelerating over-exploitation of them and we have to perceive their actions, their survival, their distribution, as a way to successfully handle them and maintain them,” she instructed CBC Radio’s Mainstreet on Friday.
“And so OTN’s mission is to be a world chief in supporting the analysis that permits this understanding and stewardship.”
The cash, granted by the Canada Basis for Innovation, brings the community’s funding to $65.6 million for its 2017-2029 cycle.
A information launch from Dalhousie College mentioned the funding will permit the community to develop its headquarters, infrastructure and operations, bolster its database by creating new partnerships world wide, develop new applied sciences to higher perceive the ocean, and assist the United Nation’s sustainable growth objectives.
It would additionally permit the community to proceed the work they’re already doing — monitoring and understanding marine life.
“Proper now, it is getting used to trace critically endangered North Atlantic proper whales to mitigate, in real-time, transport strikes and entanglement in fishing gears,” she mentioned.
Mainstreet NS8:23Ocean Monitoring Community secures $38.5 million grant
The Ocean Monitoring Community primarily based at Dalhousie College has simply obtained a $38.5 million grant from the Canada Basis for Innovation. Fred Whoriskey , the group’s govt director, and Sarah Iverson, a professor of biology at Dal, and the scientific director of the community inform Jeff Douglas what the brand new funding means for his or her scientific work.
Fred Whoriskey, the chief director of OTN, mentioned it is pertinent to trace marine animals like Atlantic bluefin tuna and North Atlantic proper whales as a result of they’re extremely valued species.
“They’re both fisheries — or in some instances tourism — drivers and what occurs is native communities and Indigenous peoples are actually depending on them, so when issues start to go improper, issues start to alter. It has actual impacts on our communities,” he mentioned.
“The work that we’re doing is absolutely making an attempt to make a greater future right here for Canada and for Canadians and to attempt to assist our native communities.”
