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BC - University of Victoria and Canadian Buoyed Monitoring Network CARMS program
VICTORIA,
BC - University of Victoria and Canadian Buoyed Monitoring Network CARMS program
Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), also
known as Red Tide, is a condition that can negatively impact coastal communities
dependent on the cultivation
of seafood. It can also devastate specific industries such as aquaculture
operations. Blooms are coastal phenomena that result from a population
explosion of toxic, naturally occurring microscopic plankton.
In order to monitor and assess red tide conditions along Canada’s
west coast, AXYS Technologies, University of Victoria based CARMS, and
the Canadian Buoyed Monitoring Network have partnered to build and deploy
two coastal environmental monitoring buoys.
 The monitoring buoys will be outfitted with a series of water quality
and meteorological sensors. These sensors will measure a variety of water
and air parameters, and then transmit the resulting data via Iridium satellite
telemetry to a central data server. Access to the data will be available
to program users via the Internet. The buoys will have the capability of
being remotely controlled from a web-based computer by program personnel.
The buoys are also designed to work in conjunction with a new airborne
imaging spectrometer owned by CARMS and operated in partnership with TERRA
Remote Sensing, also of Sidney BC.
Future partners of this Red Tide monitoring effort include the University
of Southern Mississippi and the Sino-Canadian Technology Park in Qingdao,
China.
The buoys will be completed and delivered to CARMS in late summer 2005.
Funding for this project has been made available through the  National Research
Council (NRC) Industrial Research Assistance program (IRAP). The owners
of the buoys will be the Canadian Buoyed Monitoring network, a not for
profit entity.
Terms of the contract have not been provided.
AXYS Technologies Inc. designs, manufactures and distributes environmental
monitoring systems worldwide. For further information contact AXYS Technologies Inc. by email at info@axystechnologies.com or on the web: www.axystechnologies.com.
CARMS’ primary focus is on regional resource and environmental applications.
For further information contact CARMS’ at amalis@mail.geog.uvic.ca.
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