B.C. trawler snares section of costly undersea observatory

Vancouver Sun: B.C. trawler snares section of costly undersea observatory

VANCOUVER — A wayward fishing trawler has knocked out a key section of the $100-million Neptune Canada observatory on the sea floor off Vancouver Island.

The trawler was dragging its giant net across the sea floor — in an area where the fishers are not supposed to go — and hit one of Neptune's platforms, loaded with costly titanium instruments that monitor everything from earthquakes to tsunamis.

Repairing the system could cost anywhere from $700,000 to $1.7 million, said Chris Barnes, director of Neptune Canada, who describes the hit as a "major blow" for the observatory and its elaborate array of sensors, rovers and instruments.

The instruments on the "pod," which have been on the sea floor since 2009 and were designed to last 25 years, suddenly went dead just after 1 a.m. on Feb. 18.

It was unclear what happened at first. But the super-sensitive devices, which relay data to Neptune headquarters over the Internet in real time, collected plenty of incriminating evidence just before they died.

A seismometer, meant to monitor earthquakes, caught the vibrations caused by the trawler as it bore down on the pod — and the exact moment it hit. Engineering data shows when other instruments and cables were hit and suddenly stopped working.

"We can actually detect how the instruments got disconnected, the precise time and the precise sequence of events," Barnes said in an interview on Thursday.

He said the data shows which direction the trawler was moving, and even includes acoustic images of the giant fishing net coming down from the surface.

While the trawler has not yet been identified, the "internal investigation" into the observatory's "first fisher hit" continues, said Barnes. He said there could be "legal implications," but declined to elaborate.

The fishing industry and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans were consulted when Neptune was designed and built to try to avoid problems on B.C.'s increasingly busy sea floor, where trawlers are allowed to drag giant nets across the seabed down to depths of more than 1,300 metres, said Barnes.

Neptune's cables, which stretch 800 kilometres across the seabed were strengthened and buried a metre under the sea floor in waters where fishing occurs. "We've spent a lot of money in this observatory trying to protect against impacts by fishers or ship anchors," said Barnes.

He said the fishing industry was also provided with detailed navigational information and asked to steer clear of Neptune's equipment. The pod hit in February is about 100 kilometres offshore and under 400 metres of water in a location known as the Barkley Upper Slope.

The "pod" of instruments measured about 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres. It extended about two metres above the sea floor, and connects to other equipment nearby.

It is not yet clear what has become of the instruments, which may have been picked up in the net as bycatch. "We've been trying to find out if any ships in the area reported finding or picking up any nice bright, shiny instruments," said Barnes.

Most of them are made of titanium to stop corrosion, he said, and "are quite expensive, highly specialized instruments that are not of use to anyone else"

He said investigators have also been contacting processing plants in case some of the instruments "were dumped into the bowels of the boat" and then emptied out with the fish.

They have had no luck yet and Barnes said the instruments may still be on sea floor. A remotely operated vehicle will be sent down to have a look in July, said Barnes, noting that it will cost $60,000 a day for ship time alone.

He said the best-case scenario is that the instruments are still on the sea floor, and can be reconnected to the pod platform. The worst, at $1.7 million, is that the instruments will have to be replaced.

"It's pure speculation at this time," said Barnes. "What we know is that we essentially lost connection and we know it's a fishing vessel that damaged the system."

"It is very frustrating, to say the least," said Barnes.