At Hakai, we focus on the fundamentals. Apart from the Earth’s crust, nothing is more fundamental than the Earth’s oceans. The coastal margin of British Columbia is under the enormous influence of the vast Pacific Ocean–its currents and upwelling, plus the atmospheric weather it creates. While we lack the capability to venture more than a few kilometers offshore on our own, we work with partners who can. In the ocean we can reach ourselves, we look intensively at its physical and chemical properties—temperature, salinity, oxygen, nutrients—and how those properties vary spatially and with depth, and change seasonally and year-to-year. This physical and chemical regime sets the constraints for all life in the coastal ocean and nearshore.
Ocean Observation
