SEAM Projects

The project team will be led by two Principal Investigators - Dr. Craig Brown (Dalhousie University) and Dr. Katleen Robert (Memorial University). Co-Prinicipal Investigators will lead each of the work packages, comprising a team of research students, postdoctoral researchers, & collaborators. 
 

The project is organized as seven, interconnected & overlapping Work
Packages, structured under 5 research themes:
Theme 1: Societal Engagement
Theme 2: Broad-scale Mapping
Theme 3: Fine-scale Mapping
Theme 4: Tools – Hardware Technologies
Theme 5: Tools – Data Analytics

Industry, government & academic  partners will
form an integral part of the research program.

Apoqnamatulti’k is a three-year collaborative study that focused on three culturally, ecologically, and commercially important species in two large ecosystems: American Lobster and American eel in the Bras d’Or Lake and Atlantic tomcod and American eel in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Apoqnamatulti’k was built using a Two-eyed seeing framework and a mutual goal to share what we learn together with communities and decision makers to contribute knowledge to help inform management and stewardship of study species in a way that values different ways of knowing.

Benthic ecosystems contribute to global ocean health through biogeochemical functions & provisions of ecosystem services. Benthic ecosystems are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic pressures such as climate change & therefore, effective marine monitoring strategies are needed to evaluate ecosystem health.
Traditional marine monitoring methods can be extractive, destructive, costly, and labour intensive, limiting scope & repeatability. Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVS) represent an innovative monitoring technology, with many advantages compared to traditional survey methods. The majority of BRUVS studies have been conducted in the photic zone within the southern hemisphere, with 61% of studies attributed to Australia alone. Significant knowledge gaps surround the use of BRUVS with integrated lights in poor visibility waters of the North Atlantic.

The goal of this research project is to develop integrated approaches for seafloor habitat mapping in the Bay of Fundy to assess spatial patterns in benthic habitats and associated fauna, and the environmental drivers of these patterns.
The project addressed the following five research objectives.
1. Multisource Multibeam Data
2. Baroclinic and Barotropic Ocean Circulation Models
3. Ground Truthing
4. Benthic Habitat Maps
5. Spatial Distribution of Benthic Debris

Ocean floor mapping was a key area of research for the SEAM Lab. The goal is to make detailed thematic maps of the seabed using data obtained from a combination of techniques and innovative data analytics. The SEAM Lab is focused on investigating the latest innovations in ocean survey instruments, including subsea camera systems, multibeam echo sounders and autonomous platforms.

One of the main areas of research for the SEAM Lab is the application of seafloor acoustics for studying, mapping and monitoring benthic ecosystems. In 2016, the team,, in collaboration with QPS and R2Sonic, undertook a study to test the acquisition and processing of multispectral backscatter data from a multibeam echosounder.

The SEAM Labs drop camera system was designed to answer specific questions. It uses known principles to solve practical problems in industry, communities, or elsewhere. Largely built in the lab. Student interns played a large role in bringing this project to life. The research team utilized the training of NSCC electronics engineering, mechanical engineering and ocean technology students.