Ocean Networks Canada: What It’s Really Like to Work in the Deep Sea

Ocean careers are often imagined as adventurous and exciting, but what does it actually mean to work in the ocean every day, especially in the deep sea? In this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, Andrew speaks with Megan Paulson from Ocean Networks Canada, Josh Tedarenko from Campac Marine Services, and Dirk, who all work in partnership on deep-sea observatory operations and ROV missions. They share their unique experiences, challenges, and the incredible coordination required to operate in high-pressure ocean environments.

Deep-sea technology plays a crucial role in their work—from deploying and maintaining underwater observatories to remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) capable of diving to 6,000 meters. You’ll learn about the science, logistics, and passion behind careers that support ocean research and monitoring. Whether you’re curious about marine tech, deep-sea exploration, or launching your own ocean science career, this episode will give you an insider’s view of life under the surface.

Website: https://www.oceannetworks.ca/

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Episode Transcript

(01:00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the
How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
I'm your host Andrew Lewin and today
we're diving into
what's really like to work in
the ocean as part of our monthly series
called Surfacing Secrets.
Explore the ocean, know the planet.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to
explore the deep sea?
I operate cutting edge underwater
technology or spend your
days surrounded by one of the

(01:00:20):
most planet's mysterious environments.
In this episode, I'm joined by Meg
Paulson and Dirk Lorsau
from Oceans Network, Canada
and Josh Tenereco from Canpack who share
their first-hand
experiences working in the
field.
We talk about everything from excitement
of deploying ROVs
thousands of meters below
the surface to the challenges of working
under intense pressure,

(01:00:41):
both literal and figurative.
If you ever dreamed of a career in marine
exploration engineering
or you want to understand
what life is like for those protecting
and studying our oceans,
this is the episode for
you.
Let's start the show.
And then on the flip side, there's days

(01:01:01):
where you're like, I
can't believe I'm getting
paid to do this right now.
This is absolutely incredible.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another
exciting episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
I'm your host Andrew Lewin and this is
the podcast where you
find out what's happening
with the ocean, how you can speak up for
the ocean and what you
can do to live for a better
ocean by taking action.
On today's episode, we are going to be
talking about the deep sea.
We're going to be talking about the work

(01:01:23):
done by people and
partners of Ocean Networks Canada
and we're going to be going beyond the
surface to talk about
what it really means to work
in the ocean, especially in the
mysterious and
challenging world of the deep sea.
Our guests, Megan, Josh and Dirk are
ocean professionals who
spend their days deploying
and maintaining remotely operated
vehicles, troubleshooting

(01:01:43):
problems miles offshore and
gathering crucial data for ocean science.
We'll hear what it feels like to operate
equipment under extreme
pressure, the surprises
you can encounter when exploring the
ocean floor and the teamwork it takes to
make every mission a success.
We're also going to dig into the personal
side of life at sea, how they balance
long stints away from family,

(01:02:05):
the camaraderie that develops among crew
members and the passion that keeps them
coming back to this
vital and demanding work.
This conversation is a rare behind the
scenes look at careers that keep our
understanding of the ocean moving forward
and it's a chance to appreciate
the people who dedicate their lives to
studying and protecting ocean ecosystems.
So stay tuned, get ready for the stories

(01:02:26):
from the deep and let's get to know the
planet on Surfacing Secrets.
Here's the interview with Megan, Josh and
Dirk. Enjoy the interview
and I will talk to you after.
Megan, Josh and Dirk, welcome to the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast.
Are you ready to talk about what it's
like to work in the ocean?
Let's do it.
Yeah, all right. This is gonna be a lot

(01:02:48):
of fun. I'm super excited because it's
not often actually, I don't think we've
ever really had a full conversation of
what it's like to work in the ocean,
especially the deep sea.
We have three people here who work in a
partnership with Josh and for Oceans
Network Canada with with Megan and Dirk
and we're going to find out exactly what

(01:03:10):
they do with those programs.
But we are here to talk about what it's
like to work in the ocean
because that is what they do.
And we're going to talk about sort of the
challenges, the fun that
you get to have out there.
But also just like what it's like to work
like in such a deep pressured system and
all the materials I have to go in, ROVs.
There's going to be a lot of fun chats
coming on this podcast on this episode.

(01:03:32):
So I am super excited to do that. Before
we get into all that, though, why don't
we hear from all of you
who you are and what you do?
We'll start with Megan.
Thanks, Andrew. My name is Megan Paulson.
And my role here at Ocean Networks Canada
is executive director of
observatory operations.
And what that means is basically all
operations at ONC as it relates to our

(01:03:55):
observatories is under my purview.
And that includes physical operations and
digital operations because what we do, we
don't just put stuff in the ocean, but we
collect data from everything that we're
putting in the ocean.
And we make that data available to
basically anyone with the Internet
connection for free.
That's amazing. I love that. I love it. I

(01:04:15):
can't wait to dive deep into
that. Let's go. Josh, next.
Yeah, I'm Josh Tederenko. I'm director of
ROV operations at
Campact Marine Services.
We're a company on the west coast of
Canada that provides any subsea services
down to six thousand meters
with our deep sea rated ROV.
My job in the company is to take care of

(01:04:37):
and run and operate, mobilize, upgrade
all of our underwater robotic systems.
OK, that's that's interesting. That's
like I feel like that is a continually
growing field to to look at robotics and
especially when it comes to underwater
underwater work, right?
Yeah, absolutely. Yes. I mean, just like

(01:04:57):
any tech industry, you're always sort of
chasing the newest latest technology and
trying to be at the forefront.
And a lot of what our partnership is with
Ocean Networks Canada is not just to
provide the services, but also to make
sure that we we stay on top of the latest
and greatest technology for the industry.

(01:05:19):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Looking forward
to diving into that as well. And Dirk,
how about us know who
you are and what you do.
OK, I'm Dirk Russo. I'm the director of
Observatory Physical Operations for Ocean
Networks Canada. And my team is made up
of engineers and technicians. And we work
together to integrate new physical
infrastructure onto the network, whether
that's new sensors, new equipment or new

(01:05:40):
technology, stuff like that.
Nice. Very nice. Very nice. This is going
to be a lot of fun to be able to talk to
you. I want to just start right from the
beginning before all of you got to where
you were. And Megan,
we'll start with you.
You know, what was it like for you to get
into the ocean? Like, what made you want
to work in the ocean?
Great question. So I grew up on the east

(01:06:03):
coast of Canada. So very ocean friendly
place. But it wasn't really until I was
an undergraduate student in engineering
in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
And I applied for a position for the
Geological Survey of Canada and
fortunately got the position at the in

(01:06:26):
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and had the
opportunity through my supervisor to do
an offshore expedition where we were
collecting sediment cores and absolutely
fell in love with it.
Like I was absolutely hooked to the point
where when I graduated my undergrad, my
main criteria for getting a job was I

(01:06:47):
needed to work offshore.
That's amazing. Quick question here. You
know, when you work and we'll get into it
a little bit more, but when you work at
sea, there's a lot of sacrifices you have
to make. It's not a regular what we, you
know, quote unquote, what people would
consider regular like land job where you
get to go home after your
your nine to five year at sea.
What was so appealing for

(01:07:09):
you about working at sea?
Part of it was the adventure of it. I
mean, you really you get to go to places
that very few people go to. Part of it
was the food. I like being fed. The food
is usually amazing. I like it when people
make food for me. Yeah. Yeah.

(01:07:30):
Yeah. And part of it was really getting
to know the people on board. It's such a
different environment than a regular
office environment. And you're meeting
people and you're working really closely
with people that you wouldn't normally do
so from every walk of life, from every
type of education level.

(01:07:50):
And it's really it's really a fascinating
sort of microcosm environment and you're
kind of stuck together. So whatever comes
up, you have to figure it out. You have
to work it out and you have to move
forward for the very, you know, focused
reason that you're out there for whatever

(01:08:11):
your mission is at the time.
Yeah, for sure. And I find too, like I've
had experience working at sea and I find
like when you have to work through those
problems, you're able to get it. It's a
complete confidence boost when you're
able to figure it out. However long it
takes, you know, you never know when an
instrument is not going to work or or
something is not going to work. And
you're if you're able to get it going,
that's probably one of the best feelings.
Oh, it's yeah, it's it's such a rush, you

(01:08:33):
know, because sometimes things break.
Sometimes you get really creative.
And when you're able to work through as a
team and troubleshoot and put something
together to solve whatever the issue was
and it works, you turn it on, it works or
whatever it is, it's, oh,
it's an it's infectious.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And speaking of,

(01:08:54):
you know, fixing things that see Josh,
you know, you're you're into robotics.
You've come across that quite a bit. But
what what got you into this company that
you're working at? Like, what were you
doing beforehand? Was this always the
plan when you were younger?
Like, how did this all come to be?
Yeah, sure. Well, first of all, no, I've
never had to fix a robot offshore.

(01:09:15):
They're always they
always work perfectly.
I never ever experienced that once. No,
we're fixing them all the time. So I was
fortunate fortunate enough to grow up
with a dad that he was in the field for
his his career. So I kind of grew up
around it. And, you know, we spent time
on the ocean, you know, privately. And
then I got to see some pretty

(01:09:37):
cool ships when I was young.
I always wanted to be a pilot, though, an
aircraft pilot. But eventually, I was an
electrician after high school, I did a
trade. And then really why I went into
subsea robotics is the challenge. Subsea

(01:09:59):
robotics is especially deep sea is one of
the most challenging
jobs, careers on the planet, in my
opinion, intellectually, just just the
problems that you have to solve offshore
and the teamwork needed to solve them
consistently, drew me into working

(01:10:22):
offshore. That's really the main the main
reason why I love it every day.
I love the food more than Megan. I love
getting a team together on the ship. And
just like we talked about, you have to
you all have to come together to solve
things, whether it's subsea or, you know,

(01:10:42):
fixing something on the surface, so you
can get back in the water.
But the real draw for me is that you are
always learning. You're always being
challenged, always something different,
especially working with Ocean Networks
Canada or in the science field because
you're always just
pushing, pushing to do new things.

(01:11:03):
It's not like more common or OB fields
and oil and gas and things. They've kind
of got everything figured out and they've
been doing it for a long time. But in the
fields that we work in,
it's actually a challenge.
You're always trying to solve an issue
with people that really, really want to
solve it with you. Yeah, that are really

(01:11:24):
interesting. Everybody's very motivated.
We all come together offshore. So that's
that's the main draw for me.
That's why I got into this.
I don't blame you. I don't blame you.
That sounds amazing.
Dirk, how about yourself?
When I growing up, I grew up in a kind of
a subtropical rainforest in South Africa
and at the age of six, I already had my

(01:11:44):
own horse and we would like ride our
horses in the game reserves
and stuff to my friend's house.
Like we were pretty wild kids, right? So
I've always had this sense of adventure.
And I think that just kind of came stuck
along when I was in university and got
opportunity to do a co-op
with Ocean Networks Canada.
You saw the same thing. It's like this is
you get to go all these places kind of
what Megan was saying, like we have got

(01:12:06):
observatories in the Arctic all along the
coast of BC. We got one of the east
coast. So it's a lot of really remote
travel. And that's what I that's what I
really liked. And then working here, I
kind of got into the offshore working on
the vessels and stuff. That's just part
of the job, right? So yeah.
And I guess one of the favorite things
about working here is everyone kind of

(01:12:27):
circle. I want to say circle the train,
but everyone kind of came together
because they're equally passionate. So
the people you're working with are just
as excited. And I think both Josh and
Megan already mentioned this, but you
kind of end up here because you want to
be here. It's not necessarily easy road
to get here. So right coworkers, I guess.
Yeah, I think it's I think it's really

(01:12:48):
interesting to how you know, a lot of
people I'm a marine biologist and I think
a lot of people who try and get into this
field who want to work on the ocean think
they have to be a marine biologist. You
are all scientists. You are all engineers
of one one way or another of worked in
that in that field. Did you ever picture
yourself during our Josh, you might be a

(01:13:08):
little different because your dad worked
in this and this is something that you
know was you can see what what you could
what was one of the
potentials other than just the
being a being a pilot. But did any of you
think that this is what you were going to
be doing dirt will start with you this
time. Like, did you think that you will
be working on the ocean as a your
mechanical engineer, right? Mechanical
engineer. Yeah. Yeah. So do you ever

(01:13:28):
think that that was one of the things
you're going to be doing? No, not at all.
Like I like it. Like I've always loved
fishing and I like being on the ocean and
stuff like that, but I never thought I'd
work in the ocean. Initially, I was an
aspiring geologist, my first track,
trying to get a degree and
that did not work out. So
kind of went back square one did
electrical apprenticeship or start that

(01:13:49):
and then went to you Vic from marine
biology kind of left that as well and
then eventually did my engineering degree
and still ended up kind of where I in the
field work kind of thing. So long track
but yeah, yeah, love it. Love it. And
Josh, I know you kind of worked in that
that you saw what it was like, but did
you ever picture this is what you were
going to be doing or like I know you said

(01:14:10):
you want to be a pilot. Was this all
actually what you do?
Yeah, no, I didn't really consider this
until my mid mid 20s to be honest. I knew
it was a was an opportunity that I could
probably take up. But I yeah. And then I
and then once I got into it, I was

(01:14:31):
basically thrown right in. I took the job
and then we had our first cruise for onc
in 2012 or 13. I can't remember.
And we just we were kind of as a short
notice thing and we got thrown on board
ship and I just never turned back. So no,
but no, I didn't I didn't really think
that I would work offshore. I love

(01:14:54):
spending time in the ocean either way,
but yeah, I didn't expect this. No,
absolutely. Absolutely. And
Megan, how about yourself?
Well, it's funny that you said most
people think you need to be a marine
biologist to get into this field and
these guys can attest. I'm a terrible
biologist. I'm terrible at identifying

(01:15:15):
anything. I call them all critters and
all. But yeah, no, I when I went to
university, I started in science until I
and I thought I was going to major in
chemistry and until I hit organic chemistry.
And I thought no, thank you. And then I

(01:15:37):
switched to engineering and ended up
going into civil engineering. So again,
you don't think a civil engineering and
working on the ocean at all. But it was
really the co-op work term where I got
the opportunity to do ocean work where
like that was it. I was done. So this is
it. I love the field work. I love the

(01:15:58):
environment. I love the working with the
technology. I love the field work.
I love the technology. I love just the
fact that you have to be self-reliant.
You know, you can't just when you're out
there, you can't just swing by the ocean
hardware store to pick up anything you
forgot. A lot of a lot of people in our

(01:16:18):
mind, at least they say, you know, you
fall into it. You get a
that's exactly right. Yeah.
So, you know, robotics or background in
marine biology, some there's so many
different backgrounds that you can
actually get into engineering. It's not
just limited to to marine biology or what
people might think. And then you kind of

(01:16:39):
get an opportunity at some point. And
then a lot of people fall in love with
it, just like we all have. But it's yeah,
we say it all the time. How did you get
into this? I kind of just fell into it.
I'm 100% right, Josh. Yeah, I certainly
did. Yeah. Well, and maybe I wanted to
just kind of ask a question to you,
obviously, you know, being being the

(01:17:01):
woman on the podcast today working in a
field at sea is not something that I
think we see it a little bit. We see it
more today than we did, you know, a few a
few decades ago. But it's not something
that is advertised or not a lot of young
girls are going to say, I'm going to work
at sea back, you know, back when I grew
up in the 80s and 90s.
Although I did see a lot of women in my

(01:17:22):
in my class, like in my marine biology
class anyway. And there's more and more
engineers coming through that are that
are females. What was it? What have you
found the difference when you first
started to now? Like, what's been that?
Do you find there's do you find that
you're seeing more women working in the
field? And when you first started, like,
how was that for you?
Yeah, definitely. So, and it kind of

(01:17:46):
depends on the industry that you're
working in, I find working in science,
there tends to be more, more women, and
more women working in the field, which is
kind of a friendlier environment. I
didn't always work in science, and it
wasn't always quite as friendly. But
certainly the the number of women who are

(01:18:10):
going into the field has increased.
And I think the overall sort of
expectations and acceptance of women
being in the field has really grown a
lot. You know, it used to be, you know,
at times like, I wouldn't be allowed to
go out on a ship because there wasn't
accommodations. Yeah.
And these guys know very well that at

(01:18:32):
Ocean Networks Canada, that's not an
acceptable answer now. Right.
And so we, we have to make sure that the
accommodations are there. And I think
having like, you know, a generation or a
couple of generations of women who've,
who've kind of gone through it, and are
in leadership positions now saying like,

(01:18:54):
No, that's not acceptable, we have to do
better is really push things forward.
And so we were off shore just this past
June, and there were a number of young
women, or younger than me, I should say,
women on on board, where it was their
first experience at sea, and it was such
a open and friendly and supportive

(01:19:17):
environment that was different
than when I started for sure.
And so, you know, the other senior women
on board, we just kind of looked at each
other and and said to each other like,
wow, can you imagine if this is what your
first experience at sea was like, it was
really it was it was so great to see.

(01:19:38):
Obviously, having such a positive
experience for for young scientists, any
young scientists come out, we'll want
them to come back out, that'll make it
all. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that was so
much fun. I want to go back out and do it
again. Let's be honest, it's not easy to
work in the ocean. We say it's fun. We
say it's but it's there's, there's some
tough days, you know, when you when the
seas are up and it's not always calm and

(01:19:59):
it's and it's not always sunny. And so it
can be quite difficult sometimes. So it's
always good to have a
great, a great crew.
And as we start to, you know, I'm sorry,
the questions are going to start to get
into the form of like, what types of jobs
are you guys doing when you're out there
that having that crew dynamic where you
can everybody gets along, you know, and

(01:20:19):
works together and supportive together.
Obviously, the three of you know, each
other quite well. You've been at sea
quite a number of times.
You know, Dirk, what makes a crew like
what what makes it like in terms of the
people work so well together? Like, what
does it take? Especially at sea?
Well, there's very, it's kind of funny,
you pick a crew, you pick your crew list

(01:20:41):
very specific to what the jobs are. And
there's kind of these kind of discrete
jobs. And then so you've got the kind of
specialists for each one. And then you
also have these like, I don't know, jack
of all trade, but Swiss Army knives of
people that you can bring along as well.
So that kind of kind of cover the spread.
So we've got a few of those as well.
So we'll have like a dedicated person
from science or data that would focus a

(01:21:03):
lot of their efforts on that field
because it takes like their full
attention. But then there's also the back
deck work and leading dives and that kind
of thing that you really need to shuffle
the expertise around.
But I think what gets you through the day
or because some of these cruises are
long, they're like 22 days of 12 hours on
every day is again, is the people that
you go with. I've cruised with people

(01:21:25):
where the, you know, the camaraderie
wasn't necessarily there. And then
cruises with when it is there. It just
it's a lot of jokes. It's a lot of
stories. It's just kind of, I don't know.
It's the people that you go with, I think
it kind of form this little family on
each cruise. And by the end, you're like,
Oh, what I do now, because everyone goes there separately.
Right. Right. So yeah, yeah, for sure.

(01:21:45):
Yeah. Dirk, Dirk calls me at night after
cruises for the like the first week. He's
he's really gets really lonely. He misses
me a lot. He doesn't ask. He calls me.
No, I don't know. Is that enough with
Dirk? That's enough.
You've got all the voicemails.
Voice mail full voice. Just check it in.

(01:22:07):
Speaking of which, you know, you talk
about missing each other after how long
are these trips? I know they vary, but
what's the average length of a trip at
sea when you're going out for and I don't
even know if this is what you call it.
But like regular maintenance. Is that
what these trips are usually for is
regular mates making sure that everything
is working there, making it. If you have

(01:22:27):
to switch out some instrumentation things
like how long are those
typically those trips?
And we got Megan, you can show sure.
Sure. So, um, sorry, for Ocean Networks
Canada, we typically have at least two
regular maintenance trips per year. One
is really focused more on inshore. And
one is focused more on offshore. The
inshore one is typically a week a little

(01:22:48):
bit more than a week. The offshore one is
typically two to three weeks long. Okay.
And when we say two to three weeks, you
know, usually it's people are working 12
hour shifts. Yeah. Seven days a week. Like we don't have a lot of time to do that.
It doesn't matter if it's a holiday. We
don't get weekends. It's it's a grind.
Yeah. Yeah. And you're and when we say 12

(01:23:08):
hour shifts, like you're on your shift
for 12 hours. But you know, typically
you're up, you're doing some prep work,
you're doing some post shift work as
well. So it's it's intense for sure.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's also it's like you
want to make sure that, you know, when
you're out there, everything works. And
we've talked about this already. If
something doesn't work, you have to be on

(01:23:29):
it to make it work as fast as you can,
because you only have a
certain amount of time out at sea anyway.
And if you're only having one or two
trips, then it can be really difficult.
You don't want to miss out on something
or you don't have to go back out for one
specific thing. If you couldn't get it
done in the first trip, but I kind of got
ahead of myself in terms of what goes
into the planning of these trips. Like

(01:23:49):
how, like how far into planning do you
guys get? How many like that take months
to get things done? You know, what is it?
What goes into that? And then you know, you're going to have to go back to the
next one. And I guess we'll we can talk
to who wants to take that one. It'll take
Megan. Do you want to talk to Josh?
Sorry, I can talk to, you know, speak to

(01:24:09):
the ROV planning. Yeah. So well, we I
like to consider the the cruises almost
they're almost like a movie production in
that there is a ton of prep and planning
that takes place. And then it all has to
get done in a short window. Everybody
works 24 seven. And then you're kind of
done and you wrap it up. And it's it's so

(01:24:31):
planning is in my opinion, it's the most
important part of any cruise because you
don't plan it, right? Obviously you go
out and you waste all this time and
money. So from the ROV side of things, we
like to meet with whoever we're working
with, Ocean Air, which is Canada a couple
months before a job, make sure that every

(01:24:54):
couple weeks after that and then closer
together to make sure we have
deck plans for the ship all.
All worked out all of our operations that
we need special equipment for we have the
equipment, you know, either rented or
purchased and on the way and installed.
And so, you know, there's at least on our

(01:25:17):
end, there's there's one to two months of
prep work, depending on the specific
exhibition, I think, you know, Megan, you
guys, you guys have a bit more probably.
Yeah, so so we we start months and months
in advance and really the planning starts
with what's broken and figuring out

(01:25:38):
what's broken and what needs to be
replaced and what needs maintenance or
like where are we expanding and and from
there and and we get, you know, it's it's
a real team effort. So all the teams at
Ocean Networks Canada and some of our
stakeholders and and science partners
get involved and make requests. So it

(01:25:59):
starts with that. And from there, we're
procuring instruments, testing them,
validating them, making sure that the
data quality is right, building them up.
Sometimes they have to be built onto
platforms. Sometimes the platform needs
to be designed first.
So so there's a lot of that, that prep
work that goes into it. And then, you

(01:26:22):
know, so that's sort of on the instrument
side. And like, what are we going to do?
And sort of based on what our plan is,
we, we, we have to procure sometimes a
ship, sometimes a ship and an ROV.
And so, you know, we have to know what
our requirements are for those ships and
ROVs based on the work
that we're trying to get done.

(01:26:42):
We have to submit our permits and make
sure that all of that is above board. And
then and then as we're getting a little
bit closer, as Josh mentioned, we work
directly with the ROV provider to really
get into the nuts and bolts of like
integrating sensors or specialized
equipment into the ROV for every

(01:27:06):
for every dive that we do. So every time
we go in the water with the ROV, we call
it a dive at a particular site, we have
very detailed dive plans written. They're
usually written in advance, but they're
usually tweaked like the day before a
dive with input from the ROV pilots and
and the people on board. And yeah, so

(01:27:27):
there's there's a lot that goes into it.
I would imagine too, like it's constantly
changing because based on weather would
would be pretty significant in terms of
how that can change your plans quite
quickly, whether you even go out or
whether you even deploy an ROV or that
type of work, right?
Yeah, we're fortunate where we have a
number of different sites that we can go

(01:27:47):
to and and typically most of our sites
are part of our expedition plan. But we
are all three of us are glued to windy.
Pretty much all the time looking at the
forecast looking at at, you know, the
wave hides the wind at each of our
locations. And, you know, looking a few
days in advance of like, okay, well, what

(01:28:08):
makes the most sense? And does it make
sense to run away from the weather here
to go somewhere else?
You know, to get a good weather window or
is it going to turn there just as we
arrive, you know, like all all those real
time decisions and then we work we're we
work closely with the captains to
obviously, of course, of course, and
Megan's leaving out really the important

(01:28:29):
part of the planning,
especially on board.
She brings along a very
large white board every time.
Yeah.
She calls it her dream board. And she
writes down all of the possibilities
every day of what we could do based on
weather and everything that's gone on.
And then about 36 times a day, she goes

(01:28:51):
to the dream board and
changes what's on it.
So our vision board, right? It's like
when people plan like they do their
vision board. This is your vision for
for. Yeah. Yeah. I have it labeled on the
top. Oh, and see dream board.
I love it. I absolutely love it. Now,
once you've done all the planning, now

(01:29:13):
you're you're steaming up. Does O and C
have their own ships or do
you do you contract them out?
Do you take that one? Yeah, Dirk, why
don't you take that one? So we contract
the ships. We and those could be, you
know, job specific. So a lot of times
there's a certain requirement for cranes
or ship size or something like this.

(01:29:33):
On our inshore expeditions, we could get
away with some smaller vessels and
offshore. Of course, we need the bigger
vessels and that's a combination of a lot
of times we use Coast Guard vessels.
There's some partnership there. And then
also we've used Josh's their company camp
back. We used to their ship before
there's a few different options that we
can use. So it's a combination. So I'll

(01:29:54):
contract it though. We do own our own
little like aluminum
little smaller work boat.
And we do smaller operations with that
where we do small coastal observatories,
but not offshore. Now with that, will
that little boat come on to some of the
bigger boats to do some little experts? I
know some research vessels do that. No,

(01:30:14):
it does not. Yeah, makes sense.
It's very, very, very, yeah, for the
little boat. Yeah. Now, how long does it
take like for the offshore sites?
Obviously, the inshore sites probably
doesn't take as long, but for the
offshore sites to say your furthest site
that you would go, how long would that
take to get there, Dirk?
It takes about when you leave the dock

(01:30:34):
here at IS, it takes about 27 hours of
steaming to get there. Okay. So yeah, it
takes quite a while to get there. Yeah.
To our furthest sites. So that's our
diverse site. But when we're doing our
planning, we try and maximize our
daylight hours and our dive windows to
get to a site so that we're, yeah.

(01:30:57):
So it's difficult, like when we plan our
cruise in advance, we have an itinerary
for okay, we're planning on leaving at
one RV, are you going to be ready at one
o'clock so we can leave so you can be,
you know, Barkley Canyon at eight in the
morning for first dive.
And then you start creeping past one
pass. Okay, so no point rushing to
Barkley Canyon. Let's go to Cascadia. No
point rushing that let's go to Endeavor
because you might want to

(01:31:17):
minimize those days for diving.
Yeah, yeah. And like, there's a seems to
be a lot of logistics in here. Have any
of you gone through like logistics
training because I don't know if that's
necessarily taught in university when you
go to university. Is this something you
learn as you do more and more trips like
you just kind of learn on the go? Josh,

(01:31:39):
you could talk about this because
I learned to hand it
off to somebody else.
Yeah, it just seems like you have to
anticipate a lot you have to like an
experience obviously matters
right when you come into this.
Absolutely. I mean, my, I always tell
people, you know, my job specifically as

(01:32:01):
the director of operations is really to
just try and think of everything that we
need, write it down and get get people to
either do it or get
it or have it shipped.
You know, just like any company, we have
logistics personnel and things like that.
So, so there is a ton always to think
about, which is why we meet so often with

(01:32:22):
clients and ocean networks, Canada.
Yeah, but no trading. Absolutely. And you
can tell that sometimes.
For sure. Yeah, I can imagine. I think
you always have to be patient in a way of
like not everything goes right when
you're at sea, right? A lot of things can

(01:32:44):
go, you know, not necessarily wrong, but
divert because of weather or something
that you realize when you get there.
I think that's, you know, I think that's
that's that's what it really happens. And
when you when you get that challenge, you
kind of work through it right and as a
team and you talk about maybe a time
making that you've you've come to a site
and things didn't necessarily go as

(01:33:06):
planned right off right off the bat, like
the weather kind of shift like what
happens when that when like weather
shifts as you get to a site, is it more
of a kind of weight or do you just go to
the next thing that you can do?
Yeah, it really depends on the
conditions. So we've definitely, you
know, looked at the weather window and we
get on site and the weather looks okay.

(01:33:27):
And we started dive say, yeah, and we get
partway through the dive and the
weather's deteriorating and with a lot of
input from the ROV team and from the
ship's captain, you know, we say, okay,
we have to cut this dive short, like we
have to recover right away,
you know, because ultimately,
you know, when the ROV is being

(01:33:48):
recovered, you know, it's it's a huge
robot coming up on a crane and people are
having to navigate it on deck and secure
everything on deck. And we, you know, we
have to do it in a safe way. Right. So
whatever the operation
is, we're not going to
we're not going to risk unsafe

(01:34:10):
operations. So if if the weather's
deteriorating, if the captain makes a
call, then, you know, the operation is
done for the day and we recover the ROV.
Yeah. And and then we look at the
forecast. And, you know, maybe it's
blowing through very quickly. And we sit
and wait, which we do sometimes. Yeah,

(01:34:31):
maybe it's going to be really bad in that location for the next
three days. And then we look at our other
locations on our a couple years ago, we a
really big storm was coming through. And
it was going to impact all of our sites.
And we actually ran away from the storm

(01:34:52):
and hunkered down for over a day off the
coast of Oregon, because that was the
only place that we wouldn't get pummeled.
Right. So it happens. And so when we're doing our part, we're going to have to do a little bit of a
planning, like we we oversubscribe
ourselves. So we plan to to do more
things than we could ever possibly get
done. Because maybe the weather is going

(01:35:16):
to be great the whole time. And we could
get nearly all of it done. Typically, we
were down for a little bit during the
weather. Sometimes when the weather is
too bad to dive for safety reasons with
the ROV, depending on the vessel that we have, we can get it done.
And so we have sometimes we can spend
some time mapping. So using using a multi

(01:35:38):
beam mapping system. Yeah, exactly. And
so just kind of mapping the gaps and
collecting data just to be somewhat
useful while we're waiting for the
weather to settle down.
Yeah. Now, Josh, when you deployed the
ROV, I've never been part of that. I've
never had the pleasure of being a part of

(01:35:59):
that kind of excursion. Is the ROV
tethered to to the boat at all times?
Like there's a cable that goes down that
that that allows you to talk to the ROV
in a way in a sense?
Yes, yes. I mean, it's kind of the
definition of an ROV remotely operated
vehicle. They're always to be designated
as an ROV. You're tethered to a ship or

(01:36:22):
to a vessel or a dock if you want. So
there are autonomous
underwater vehicles, AUVs that are not.
But they're used for a totally different
purpose. And for for for Ocean Networks
Canada, we need to obviously we need to
be operating our manipulators and we need
to see the live view of the camera. So we
need the tether, which is almost 7000

(01:36:44):
meters long on a giant winch that's on
board and contain our power conductors
and fiber optics to get the data up to
the surface and down to the ROV.
So yes, always tethered, which, you know,
is is always it's the hardest thing to to
manage for ROV pilots. If you can manage

(01:37:06):
your tether through all that water when
you're really deep, then you can you can
work usually just fine.
So that's it's a big part of ROV. The
tether is flexible, though, right? It's
just like it's cables. It's not like a
metal. Is it a metal piece?
Well, there's there's multiple types. So

(01:37:27):
we have several ROVs and really the two
main types are soft, heather and armored.
So a soft tether would be wrapped in a
rubber and be easily bendable.
And the other thing is, you know, a lot
of the work is better for certain
applications, but Ocean Networks Canada
requires through framelifts of our

(01:37:50):
vehicle. So we use our vehicle to attach
to scientific platforms subsea.
And then we have an armored umbilical,
which is very, very strong. We can pick
up the ROV off the sea floor while we're

(01:38:10):
latched into things that are thousands of
pounds. And then we can bring them all
the way up to the ship. So that's why we
have an armored umbilical on our deep ROV
so that we can use it as basically a
really deep crane almost to deploy and
everything should see for.

(01:38:30):
Cool. So that's why, you know, all the
currents that happen within the water
column, however different they are, as
you go down deeper, that that matters
when it comes to these tethers and how
the ROV is is operated. Let's talk about
when you get I wanted to kind of hit on
this this ROV when you guys are operating
the ROV, you're in a little room, I

(01:38:50):
assume, or a container depending on the
ROV on the ship. And who's in the
container when you do this? Obviously,
Josh, you're probably in this operating
it. Dirk, are you in it as well?
Yeah, so normally for every ROV shift,
there'd be a ONC dive lead. And that
would be either myself. It's normally me
or Megan or we have another person here
and we kind of rotate shifts as well. And

(01:39:13):
we'll just go through the dive plan and
kind of pivot as as things aren't going
to work as expected anyway. So yeah,
there'd be a senior person
there every time from one C.
Okay, and then that's where like that
person's like, okay, this is what we want
to accomplish on the dive. Let's see if
we can find what we need to find and
where we're going. And then Josh, your,
your focus is more of just operating the
ROV, making sure it's in a safe spot. And

(01:39:34):
then there are arms on these ROVs and you
actually start to handle things.
Yeah, can you talk can you talk about
that? Because I still I don't know if my
brain just doesn't fathom how difficult
it must be to be able to operate these
arms in like at depth. When you you know,
it's clarity a problem sometimes I can

(01:39:55):
you talk a little bit about what happens
when you get to the point of where you
want to go, and you have to start doing
your your maintenance or whatever the
purpose of that dive is.
Sure, absolutely. Just, first of all, as
far as God leads from ocean risk Canada,
I have some that I like and some that I
don't put that on the record. I'm not
going to say who world boss over there.

(01:40:19):
But yeah, okay, so visibility is always
tough. Certain sites that ocean risk
Canada picks make me want to just I, I
get so angry sometimes
Andrew, it's a good thing.
Andrew, because when you when you can't
see what's in front of you with the
cameras that you're trying to do

(01:40:39):
manipulations, it's obviously it's very
difficult. But we've been doing that for
many years. I joke around that it makes
me it doesn't make me angry. It's just a
more difficult situation. But the science
needs to be conducted in these areas,
specifically, because of certain effects
that make their to turbidity. So, you

(01:41:00):
know, so bad. So there's several
instruments we can use.
Multigree sonar's and acoustic cameras to
to kind of see through it and employing
modes and getting better and better at
that over the years. And then as far as
manipulations go, so we basically we have
two, what we call seven functions

(01:41:21):
spatially correspondent manipulators on
the vehicle one on
each side at the front.
You know, each side at the front and
spatially correspondent means that we
have a miniature version of the arm
inside the control van, we call it. And
for each arm and a person sits there and
when they move that controller in the arm

(01:41:42):
will move exactly as
the controllers move.
Oh, okay.
And they move the controller around the
arm will follow and it's almost instant
and we need to have that ability. They're
very advanced, you know, expensive pieces
of machinery and engineering. We need
them to do the delicate science to do the

(01:42:04):
operations that is
required by Ocean Networks Canada.
So it's, you know, it's a very, very fun
part of the job, of course, but also,
again, can be extremely stressful. If
anybody watches, it takes about, I don't
know, any floor from 10 to 100 times
longer to do something with those arms

(01:42:25):
than it would for you to do
something with your own arm.
Yeah.
Online. So it's a, it can be tough.
Well, and also you're in an environment
that's very different. Obviously it's the
deep sea in many of these cases. And
there are there are critters as Megan
likes to call them critters in the deep
sea. Have you ever had, you know, can you

(01:42:47):
talk about some of the experiences that
you've had where a critter comes in is
like just curious about what they see.
They're probably like, what is this? What
is this critter? Like, what is going on
here? Do you get any, any kind of animals
that come in and just kind of play around
with the arms or try and touch the arms
because they're curious.
So mostly the arms, what will and be
curious about those always octopus. Yeah.

(01:43:08):
And it's always the coolest best thing
that we encounter. We will go to plug
something in for us, networks, Canada,
and there will be an octopus hiding kind
of using a platform and
this for platform as it's den.
And sometimes they'll be basically right
in the way. And we don't want to, you
know, scare or hurt these animals. So we
have to sort of use the manipulator and

(01:43:30):
try and they usually at that point, then
they'll reach out and
they'll, they'll grab onto you.
And obviously it's not dangerous to the
ROV in any way, but it's extremely
interesting and really fun. I mean, I
joke around with my friends that I'm out
fighting off octopus all the time trying
to get them out of our way.
A lot of crabs too, Josh. A lot of crabs.

(01:43:53):
I'm sort of like coming into the into the
frame of the camera.
Yeah, they want to very slowly. Yeah.
Yeah. But they they they get their they
see the arms. Yeah, they're brave.
They're like, okay, let's go. Yeah. I
don't know what I get
myself into, but I'm ready. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I can I can oppose this all
three of you. What's been the most

(01:44:14):
interesting thing that's happened while
deploying an ROV down at those depths
while doing work down there? What's been
the most interesting thing that's
happened to it could be individually or
is it as a team when
you're when you're down there?
I think I can start one of the.
Oh, go ahead, Derek.
Yeah. So one of the ones you don't expect

(01:44:36):
as we have these instruments that are
called fenthic and resist resistivity
sensors bars is what they look like. You
know, the tubes at once and you go to a
hydrothermal vent like the black smoker
spewing out the hydrothermal fluid and
you put the wand inside inside there and
it measures temperature and resistivity
of the of the fluid.
But then you come back a year or two

(01:44:57):
later and the whole instrument is now
part of the rock since the road is
growing as it's being deposited. The
rocks actually growing around it and then
there's no way to get it out. It's now
part of it. So there's been a situation
where we can't actually remove it. It's
been completely engulfed over the course
of like a lot of times it's completely
melted ruined. Yeah. Yeah. Not working.

(01:45:20):
Yeah. But it's not so much that's like
there's also cool stuff that
happens because the unique.
Like situation of operating ROV subsea
the ship is actually stationary for you
know, hours sometimes 36 hours because
the ROV is there and now you're offshore
sitting in the middle plot basically
without moving and when the weather gets
really thick or what they called socked

(01:45:41):
in all the lights from the ship is kind
of contained within that bubble on the
surface. Yeah. Over the course of the
night since nothing's moving you get the
bait fish you get all the bait you get
there if you didn't come in and then
becomes a feeding frenzy. So.
You've got I don't know we've seen one
night you could see millions uncountable
amount of fish but then also sunfish and
sharks and dolphins all just all nights

(01:46:03):
warming around the vessel. It's pretty
cool. I don't think you get that unless
you're getting the ROV down below as well
for that long. Right. Right. That's kind
of a cool thing. That's amazing. That's
pretty cool. Megan. Do you have a did you
have a different story that's happened to
you where that's really
memorable. Well, I'll tell a couple.
So one of our sites is the endeavor

(01:46:26):
hydrothermal vents that Dirk was talking
about a little bit and I remember kind of
like one of my first cruises going there
and you know I didn't really know that
much about them but you know the ROV goes
down and it's kind of like
you're on a different planet.
So there's there's all these hydrothermal

(01:46:46):
vents that look like spires and there's
like what looks like black smoke coming
out of them and and it's kind of shocking
and and the fact that the ROV can like
navigate around these vent structures
because you might turn a corner and then
because you don't have the same sort of

(01:47:08):
spatial awareness that you do as a human
with like peripheral vision and
necessarily like you'll you'll turn the
corner and then in the frame there'll be
this huge hydrothermal vent tower like
whoa. Yeah. It's pretty magical and and
kind of shocking because you're you're
you're floating on the ship above it and

(01:47:30):
you're like whoa. It's like this this sci
fi universe just straight down below
where we're sitting right now. It's
pretty epic. And then I'll tell one other thing. So yeah, I think that's a great thing.
Yeah, for sure.
We were on an expedition this past June
and we'd finished all of our dives and we

(01:47:52):
had a like a couple of hours before we
had to leave to be back to the dock in
time and it was lunch time and everybody
was kind of sitting outside eating lunch
and these humpback whales just were
playing in front of the ship for
and we didn't we didn't have to leave yet

(01:48:13):
and nobody was on shift anymore. So we
just it was this this epic, you know,
whale watching situation and we could
just sit there for an hour and the whole
crew was outside. I would imagine running
from one side of the vessel to the other
as as we were watching these humpbacks

(01:48:34):
playing and slapping.
I want to say it got up to five. Wow. Do
you remember that right, Dirk? Yeah,
there's a few groups that travel through
during the dive and at the end they were
kind of the last stragglers are kind of
just playing. We eventually think they
were playing in the bow thruster as a
ship holding station. They were just like
getting that blow of the thruster, right?

(01:48:57):
It was a it was a pretty magical way to
to finish an expedition.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's really great when
you can you almost have your you know,
your your environmental documentary right
in front of you. Yeah, you know, where
you just see the beautiful scenery, you
know, the ocean in the background, the
horizon and then you've got you've got
whales just playing in front of your ship

(01:49:19):
and you know, and you're then you're off
and that's that's probably the best way
to to kind of end your shift, I think.
Yeah, and there's definitely you know,
you talk about some days where you're
like, there's not enough money in the
world that you can pay me to keep doing
this, especially if you're if you're
seasick and it's rough and it's just oh,
and then on the flip side, there's days

(01:49:39):
where you're like, I can't believe I'm
getting paid to do this right now. This
is absolutely incredible.
Yeah, no, it's it's it's it's amazing. I
want to just talk a little bit about the
challenges that we have, like out at sea,
you know, obviously, we've talked about
nothing works perfectly. It's it's it can
be very hectic. Josh, for the ROV, what

(01:50:02):
are the biggest challenges? Obviously,
visibility is one we've we've kind of
touched upon in a bit of the currents. Is
there anything else that becomes a
challenge? Or is your
you just got an easy job?
It's not easy. It's a yeah, I actually
don't really do anything. It's just
robot. It's very true. It's very true.
Really easy. I could do that one. Yeah,

(01:50:24):
Josh, Josh mostly just calls it in. Yeah,
I don't actually come out of my my bunk.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, so it's, it's a
the most dynamic environment to work in.
It that we know of currently in the I
would say in the universe. And the reason
I say that is because yes, we can get to

(01:50:45):
space. But when you're in space, you have
a one atmosphere. It's a vacuum, but
that's it. You know, it's it's it doesn't
change where you go in space, say, but if
you go in the deep ocean, every meter
deeper that you put your RV into the
ocean there, the water pressure increases
because of the weight of weight of the water. Right.
And that's because of the weight of

(01:51:05):
weight of the water above you, of course.
So so the biggest challenge in or obese
general is is especially when you're
going really deep to 3000 meters is
making sure that all your systems are are
built properly and maintained properly so
that water doesn't creep into anywhere

(01:51:27):
you don't want it to.
And so it's a very highly advanced piece
of robotics that you're throwing into
salt water under pressure that's changing
all the time. So that's the you know,
that's that's problem number one. Now
that's more or less been solved over the
years of our engineering.
But then the dynamics of the job, the
other dynamics is obviously the weather

(01:51:48):
solution, the ship has problems in the
weather holding station or can make
launch and recovery dangerous if you if
you do it in two high seas.
So that's another issue that we face
commonly. And then visibility, like we
mentioned, that can be one.
Sometimes we have great visibility,

(01:52:10):
especially at the deeper sites. So that's
not an issue. Currents, though, ocean
currents can be a very large issue. We
have a cruise in March coming up where
we'll be doing some work where the
currents can be really, really just
terrible to work in.
For example, we've launched an ROV once
and of course we know what the surface

(01:52:30):
current is doing from from just looking
over the side of the ship. So we put the
ROV in and we we face the ship. So the
ROV will get swept by the current away
from the ship to a safe spot.
But once we dove 10 meters down, the
current was going in complete opposite
direction. And we could not tell that we
didn't have an instrumentation to know.
So the ROV went 10 meters down and we're

(01:52:51):
diving and all of a sudden it starts
getting pushed directly underneath the
ship, which is very dangerous.
Yeah. So, you know, that that can be one
for sure. Yeah, definitely. Definitely a
change. I mean, there's a lot of I'm
sorry, go ahead, make gifts.
Oh, I was gonna say, Josh, you can tell
Andrew about your very highly
sophisticated surface
current check before launching.

(01:53:14):
I'm so glad that you brought that up
again. Well, you're also my I have a very
advanced instrument. I go over to the
side of the ship and I spit into the
water and I watch sit and see how fast
and what direction it
goes. Very scientific.
And yeah, and it usually works pretty
well. Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine

(01:53:38):
now. I want to kind of bring up there's
there's a story that I've heard about an
ROV deciding to go on
its own trip at one point.
And you know, in a way, it's a bit of a
one of your scientific studies, I guess,
of finding out currents and where they
go. Can you talk a little bit about Josh,
where an ROV ended up
off the coast of Oregon?

(01:54:00):
Sure, absolutely. No problem. This is my
story of what I like to say is the
longest ROV dive ever because it was in
the water for two weeks straight. We were
installing an outfall pipe, which is a
pipe that comes from a sewage tank.
Comes from a sewage treatment plant in
Victoria and then disperses treated

(01:54:21):
sewage in deep into the ocean properly.
We were installing a new one a few years
ago. And as pretty much every time we've
had a major issue, there
was multiple factors involved.
But basically, our ROV became the tether
became trapped due to a few different

(01:54:46):
things. The weather came up and we became
trapped subsea. So we had to cut the
tether manually on the ship and leave the
ROV stuck subsea overnight because we
couldn't stay where
we were with the ship.
But when we came back in the morning, the
ROV was no longer stuck and they're

(01:55:07):
designed to float when they are not being
powered so that you can find them. And we
came back in the morning. It was nowhere
to be found. I spent about four days in a
small airplane searching the ocean around
that area. We didn't see it.
Is that the term?

(01:55:27):
Absolutely. And I guess we weren't really
looking in the right spot because
evidently it had floated all the way down
to the coast of Oregon from Victoria. I
don't know how many kilometers that is.
And we actually had we literally had lost
ROV flyers and posters out in Victoria.
Like if found, please return to or please

(01:55:50):
call. And we put our notices to the coast
guard and somebody eventually found it in
the US waters. And we got it back. Then
we got it working within four hours by
being returned to us, to our facility. So
that was pretty cool.
I think before we recorded, I think Megan
says by a good scientific
drifting study, I think is what we.

(01:56:10):
That's a very expensive way to understand
current versus Josh's spit test.
He's got the extremes covered. Yeah, it
was pretty rough at the time, but I could
have been stressful. Yeah, it's also not

(01:56:31):
the first ROV that I've lost. Just the
longest amount of time.
Gotcha. Gotcha.
Dirk, one of the things I wanted to talk
about too, just as we kind of wrap this
up, is you're working in very deep
waters. The pressure is almost like to
the extreme. What type of materials do a

(01:56:53):
lot of the instrumentation have to have
to be able to survive in deep?
We talked a little bit about if you put
something in a hydrothermal vent, the
deposits can grow on top of it. But if
we're looking at just a platform and
tubes that instruments go into or water
that flows through if it has to flow
through, what kind of materials are we
looking at here that you're working with?

(01:57:15):
So obviously the easiest material that's
the least reactive is plastic. So if you
can get away with plastic in whatever
pressure, that's the ideal. But like Josh
said, pressure, our deepest site is
almost three kilometers and the pressure
down there is 4,500
pounds per square inch.
So you can't get away with plastic if
there's any kind of air void, right?

(01:57:37):
Yeah. So mostly what we do use is
titanium because we don't want to have to
recover an instrument or anything like
this because we're worried about the
corrosion on the housing. So titanium is
normally our go-to for
absolutely everything.
So we have used aluminum, it's much

(01:57:58):
cheaper. It's easier to machine, but in
general, titanium. We also use shallow
water. We do use aluminum shallow water.
We can get away with plastic. But it's
not just pressure. We're
also worried about corrosion.
And that could be affected by not just
salt water. Like in straight Georgia, we
get crazy corrosion on like stainless
steel or anything like this. And we don't

(01:58:18):
like it's just some other chemical or
interaction in the water. Right. Some of
the more dormant. I don't know, dormant,
but like, I guess less interesting sites
like the abyssal plains, the things just
seem to last. And at the hydrothermal
events, there's some other weird reaction
that interferes with the materials and
village to protect itself. So but
titanium generally is good
for any of those environments.
Gotcha. Wonderful. And I know it's

(01:58:41):
sometimes for a lot of us, it's difficult
to picture what's what's under there. And
you guys have done a really great job of
putting together a story map website
where people can click on to. We'll put
the links in the show notes. Can we talk
about, you know, why this is such an
important aspect, Megan, to have these
types of story maps up to kind of give

(01:59:02):
people a perspective of what it's like,
what the instrumentation looks like, what
it's like to operate in ROV. I'm looking right now.
ROV arm that's that's trying to grab a
rope. You know, it's what how important
is that for for O and C to get that
information out there and for campact to
do that to share first shout out to the O
and C comms team who actually puts a lot

(01:59:24):
of work into the story maps.
I don't know that us as engineers and
technologists are the best storytellers
all the time, but working closely with
our comms team to put these stories
together in compelling ways so that
anyone can understand what we're talking

(01:59:45):
about and and to really tell the story
for any ages, you know, kindergarten to,
you know, seniors with
any kind of background.
And it's really, you know, if you think
about the planet Earth, we're actually
mostly ocean and, you know, other than

(02:00:05):
the surface of the ocean, most people
don't get a chance to see what's
underneath and to understand how
important the ocean is to the health of
the planet and to our industries, to our,
you know, food supplies,
you know, the list goes on.
And so kind of opening up that window so
that there's better understanding of what
goes on in the deep ocean, the

(02:00:26):
interactions in the deep ocean, you know,
just for overall awareness and and really
sort of, you know, opening the door and,
you know, sort of opening people's minds
and kind of maybe inspiring a few kids to
to join us on these on these offshore
expeditions in future.
So, yeah, so it's it's super important to

(02:00:49):
get out there and to tell the stories and
to and to make it accessible
for as many people as possible.
Absolutely. If I have a question, you
guys are preparing to go out in offshore
soon in the next month, I believe. Is
this going to be a regular maintenance
plan or is this going
to be anything different?
We'll go with this one. Yeah, so this is

(02:01:12):
we generally have to I guess long story
short, yes, it's regular maintenance. We
have normally two expeditions a year.
And normally we focus the early season
one on inshore, near shore activities and
then the summer one offshore. And that's
kind of a combination between the inshore
trying to get ahead of the like the fresh
set, which when we get all the more nutrients in the water and we get
all the more nutrients in the water and

(02:01:33):
we get all the blooms and visibility kind
of goes away. So we try and get our our
instruments freshly prepped for that to
capture all that data.
Gotcha.
And then offshore, we want to maximize
weather. So we try to go in the best
weather months. So
that's always going to summer.
Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. That
makes sense. Well, I have to say the
three of you. Thank you so much for

(02:01:54):
coming on the show and
talking about the work that you do.
Obviously, it's invaluable to the
operations of ONC and it was super fun to
have all three of you on. And it's great
to see, you know, the way you guys banter
back and forth. And obviously, you've
known each other for a long time, spent a
lot of time at sea together.
And I think it's a lot of fun to be able
to have that on the on the episode too.
So I really appreciate all three of you

(02:02:15):
coming on and for the work you do. And
good luck with the next with the next
trip. And I'd love to have you back on
the show at some point.
Awesome. Thanks, Andrew.
Thank you, Andrew. Thank you.
Thank you, Megan, Josh and Dirk for
joining me on today's episode of the How
to Protect the Ocean podcast and this
segment, Surfacing Secrets Explore the
Ocean and Know the Planet. This is such

(02:02:36):
an important thing for me to partner with
Ocean Networks Canada as well as their
partners to just kind of give the behind
the scenes of what goes on.
We hear a lot about the deep sea. We hear
a lot about the work that goes on, but we
don't get the intricacies of it. We don't
understand how like who are the players,
who are the scientists, the data
engineers, the IT people. We
don't get to hear from them.
And they are amazing people, as you can

(02:02:56):
tell the chemistry between all three
other people that we had on today, Megan,
Josh and Dirk were fun. You know, you can
tell that they have a lot of fun out
there on at sea and in the field because
it's hard. It's not easy. It's long days,
long nights at times.
It's very intense to work out at sea.
You're never going to have like a perfect
day to work out at sea when you're
looking at, you know, wave actions and

(02:03:17):
weather and so forth. So it's really good
to be able to everybody get along.
And you can just see that right now, the
camaraderie between the three guests that
we had on today. It was amazing. It was
fun. And you get to see how much fun they
have at sea as well as here on the
podcast. So it's great to see that you
have any questions or comments. Feel free
to go to the website.
The ocean networks, Canada's website,
I'll put it in the show notes in the

(02:03:38):
description below, depending on how
you're consuming this podcast. But I'd
love to hear your questions for the
podcast. If you want to let me know in
the comments on YouTube, or if you're
listening to this on your favorite
podcast app, you can go to our website,
speakupforblue.com forward slash contact.
Let me know if you have any questions
about ONC or if you have any comments
about the episodes, if you enjoy them, if

(02:03:59):
you don't like it, let me know. I want to
hear your feedback. Let me hear it from
you. And I want to thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the how
to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your
host, Andrew Lewin from the true North
strong and free. Have a great day. We'll
talk to you next time.