FORCE’s Subsea Monitoring Platform Completes First Trials
Photo: Darren Pittman/ImagesEastFundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) has recovered an underwater monitoring platform in the Minas Passage of the Bay of Fundy, following its 27-day sea trial.
The Fundy Advanced Sensor Technology (FAST) platforms are recoverable instrument platforms designed to monitor and characterize the FORCE site. Using a variety of onboard sensing equipment, the platforms enable real-time data from the Minas Passage, including: currents and turbulence, marine life activity, noise levels, seabed stability.
The FAST program encompasses three separate underwater platforms, onshore radar, meteorological instruments, and a tide gauge. Headlining the program is FAST-1, designed for frequent deployment and recovery to enable instrument testing and monitoring.
The FAST-1 platform was retrieved in mid-July, in concert with crew on the Dominion Victory, and analysis of sensor data is now underway.
“To explore the energy potential in the Bay of Fundy responsibly, we have to understand it,” said FORCE general manager Tony Wright. “We’re building a series of subsea instrument platforms that will give us a clearer picture of what’s happening at the FORCE test site.”
The FAST program is in addition to FORCE’s regulated environmental effects monitoring programs, which in 2016 focus on fish, lobster, marine mammals, seabirds, and marine noise.
