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MARINE SCIENCE ESSAYS, ABSTRACTS 2006In 2012, the Bedford Institute of Oceanography will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Such a landmark is an appropriate time for the Institute to take stock, consider its past and debate the course or courses that should be pursued in the future. To aid such an examination it was decided that a written symposium, in which a number of key fields in Marine Science were described and analysed, would give a clear picture of the fundamentals of these fields and demonstrate why they should be of concern and interest to the average person as well as to the scientists involved. These thoughts were recently published in the Proceedings of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science by distinguished senior scientists currently associated with the Bedford Institute. Articles cover the fields of:
MARINE GEOLOGY IN ATLANTIC CANADARICHARD A. PICKRILL AND DAVID J.W. PIPERNatural Resources Canada Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic) Bedford Institute of Oceanography PROC. N.S. INST. SCI. (2006) Volume 43, Part 2, pp. 91-109 The two priorities for government marine geoscience over the next decades are: (1) seabed mapping for ocean management, including safe and sustainable use of natural resources; and (2) societal responses in the coastal zone to natural hazards, global climate change and anthropogenic pressures including environmental degradation. Meeting these priorities will require scientific study of the history of past glaciations; erosion, transport and flocculation processes of sea-floor sediments, particularly of muds; and sediment transport and deposition and their interaction with environmental quality in estuarine systems, including the role of ice and storms. Numerical models are required to predict the consequences of natural rise in sea level and human interference in coastal systems and for predictive decision making in ocean management. Three recent revolutionary developments in technology will influence how science is done: these are the development of Global Positioning Systems (GPS), of multibeam sonar, and of digital data collection, storage and dissemination. However, other capital acquisitions and technological developments are necessary. These include new ships, expanded multibeam capability, and underwater autonomous vehicles. New photographic/video systems will provide resolution higher than that of multibeam bathymetry. In the coastal zone, remote sensing tools such as Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) and kinematic GPS will accelerate monitoring of coastal change. Cabled seabed observatories will provide time series and real-time information on extreme events. Research boreholes are essential to understand geological framework. PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY IN ATLANTIC CANADAR. ALLYN CLARKEOcean Sciences Division, Science Branch Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Maritimes Region Bedford Institute of Oceanography PROC. N.S. INST. SCI. (2006) Volume 43, Part 2, pp. 111-127 Physical oceanography has been practiced in Atlantic Canada since the beginnings of the science in the second half of the 19th century. Pursued largely as an applied science, its efforts have been directed toward providing information to mariners and other marine users. Early efforts focused on tidal observations to promote safe navigation. This was expanded in the early 20th century to regional studies in support of fisheries. In the second half of the 20th century, physical oceanography in Atlantic Canada grew to support the offshore development of oil and gas, provide more comprehensive environmental assessments of marine projects and processes, improve Search and Rescue responses and to better understand and predict climate change and variability. Oceanographers now have the capabilities to observe the ocean in near real-time using satellites as well as autonomous in situ instruments. The continued growth in computer power and other information technologies has permitted the development of operational ocean models that can provide real-time information and projections on oceanic conditions to a broad section of the marine community. BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY IN CANADAW. G. HARRISONEcosystem Research Division, Science Branch Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Maritimes Region Bedford Institute of Oceanography PROC. N.S. INST. SCI. (2006) Volume 43, Part 2, pp. 129-158 This is a personal account of the history, accomplishments and future of biological oceanography in Canada with emphasis on Canadian government research. Canadian biological oceanographers have a rich history pre-dating the formal beginning of marine scientific research in the country with the establishment of the St Andrews and Nanaimo field stations in the early 1900s. Over the years, they have distinguished themselves by being leaders in the early developments of the discipline, including methodologies, concepts and understanding of both the pelagic and benthic ecosystems. In more recent years, Canadian biological oceanographers have led in the conceptualization, planning and implementation of major interdisciplinary/international research initiatives on climate change and ecosystem dynamics. Additionally, they are making important contributions to ecosystem and climate monitoring, research aimed at understanding the influence of ecosystems on harvestable living resource variability and on climate change, and development and application of ecosystem and climate models. Canadian biological oceanographers have made and continue to make significant contributions to the understanding of the biology of the oceans and its interactions with the physical, chemical and geological world. The challenge of solving the complex scientific and societal problems of the future will require better planning, coordination and stronger commitment to the ocean sciences by universities and government than is currently in place. Strategic planning to define goals and responsibilities is urgently needed and should include not only government and universities, but also private sector research and industry. A HISTORY OF MARINE FISHERIES SCIENCE IN ATLANTIC CANADA AND ITS ROLE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF FISHERIESR. G. HALLIDAY AND L. P. FANNINGPopulation Ecology Division, Science Branch Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Maritimes Region Bedford Institute of Oceanography PROC. N.S. INST. SCI. (2006) Volume 43, Part 2, pp. 159-183 The roots of fisheries science on the Atlantic coast of Canada go back to 1898. The primary research agencies were the Fisheries Research Board of Canada and predecessors until the early 1970s and subsequently the federal department responsible for fisheries. Canadian research on Atlantic fisheries expanded substantially after the Second World War, at about the time the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries was formed, and increased again after the 1977 extension of fisheries jurisdiction, but gradually declined from the 1980s. Initially research was directed at improving and expanding the fisheries through exploring for new resources and by introducing and testing new fishing methods and new processing technologies, but increasingly was directed towards rational exploitation of the fisheries as international fishing effort greatly expanded in the 1960s. By the 1980s, the provision of short-term advice on catch limits occupied a large proportion of science resources. This paper describes these changes with primary reference to groundfish fisheries, which were the most important for much of the period. MARINE ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE ATTEMPTS WITH EMPHASIS ON THE EASTERN SCOTIAN SHELFKENNETH T. FRANK, JAE S. CHOI and BRIAN PETRIEOcean Sciences Division, Science Branch Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Maritimes Region Bedford Institute of Oceanography PROC. N.S. INST. SCI. (2006) Volume 43, Part 2, pp. 185-198 The collapse of major fish stocks around the world, their failure to recover even after the cessation of fishing, and the perceived deficiencies in single species fisheries management has resulted in an intensified interest in the study of whole systems. Assessment of ecosystems is a relatively new phenomenon and represents a significant departure from the past focus on individual ecosystem components such as individual, commercially exploited stocks of fish and invertebrates in isolation from their physical, chemical and biological environment. A report entitled “State of the Eastern Scotian Shelf Ecosystem” was completed recently and some of its main findings form the body of this paper. The analysis focused on more than 60 data series, most extending back to at least 1970, associated with three categories of variables: biotic, abiotic and human. Biotic variables included the abundance, distribution and composition of finfish and invertebrates, phyto- and zooplankton, and marine mammals. Abiotic variables included oceanic and atmospheric data that specify ocean climate conditions. Human variables ranged from fisheries landings and revenue, activities associated with oil and gas development and contaminants. By examining temporal variations in the data, an assessment was made of the current status of the ecosystem relative to its past state. |
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