Twenty-five metres (80 feet) below the ocean surface, just off the Port Alberni Inlet, Sechelt-based engineering and environmental consulting firm Pelagic Technologies has been hard at work on a project that could revolutionize the way ocean research is done.

Glenn Hafey, president of Pelagic, and his team have completed the first phase of work on the NEPTUNE Canada cabled sea floor observatory, an 800 km length of cable linked to various “nodes” that gather a plethora of information for scientists and lay people alike.

Hafey and his team were awarded the contract to submerge a 1.2-metre square sub-frame to the ocean floor, bolt it into the bedrock then install a 635-kilogram and highly delicate instrument frame worth about $500,000 on top, all while battling heavy undersea surges.

“It was a big challenge. Depth is one thing, but the first time we were out there was March and the surge was so bad that one diver had to hold the other diver in place while they were drilling and we barely got one mooring pin installed in the rock before we got swept out of there,” Hafey said. “At 80 feet, the surge is tremendous.”

But the highly difficult work has its reward, Hafey said. The instrument frames contain everything from 3D cameras and microphones for watching and listening to ocean life to sensors that measure temperature, currents, pressure, seismic activity, chemicals, plankton, microbes and sediment in the water — a virtual underwater laboratory.

“A big challenge for all the people who study everything that has to do with the subsurface of the ocean is that they usually have to go out on a research ship, spend a lot of money, and they’re always limited on time because most of the science groups don’t have the budget to go out endlessly and do research,” he said. “Scientists can tap into all the different independent instruments that are running on these nodes and then download the data to their computers. Someone in Japan could do a study of encrusting colonizations or whales or mammals and not ever have to leave their office. So it’s huge and it’s the first one that’s actually up and running in the world.”

Hafey said while NEPTUNE could benefit ocean science, the various partners that have worked together on it have a much larger audience in mind. Once it is fully up and running, anyone with an internet connection will be able to log in and peer through the high resolution cameras and look at the collected data.

Hafey and his team are expected to complete phase two, powering up the node they installed, in October. To view footage already gathered by NEPTUNE Canada, visit the website at www.neptunecanada.com.