Tag Archives: InFORM

Monitoring, Oceanic

Walk the Line, P: Big Blue

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by Sara Zeidan

It’s been quite rough waters the past few days, but sampling is still going smoothly. We are far from shore and open ocean surrounds us as far as the eye can see. It’s quite calming and humbling to be in the middle of the ocean, with blues of all different shades making up the waves as they crash up against the boat.
Continue reading Walk the Line, P: Big Blue →

Monitoring, Oceanic

Walk the Line, P: Out to Sea

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by Sara Zeidan

We left the Institute of Ocean Sciences, in Sidney BC, yesterday afternoon (August 17th) and are currently on the track of Line P. The day before we left was loading day and it really highlighted how much effort and people are required to get a scientific cruise together. It was really great to see the array of scientific gear required for everyone’s projects and made me eager to get everything started and embark on this cruise. Once everything was loaded I had the opportunity to help set up the equipment needed for the cesium filtration. Richard made the system much simpler to run because one look at the system on a few hours of sleep can make anyone go crazy. Continue reading Walk the Line, P: Out to Sea →

Monitoring, Oceanic

Walk the Line, P: The Plan

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by Sara Zeidan

CsFiltration
Peristaltic pumps, columns and filtrate collecting jugs used to process seawater samples for subsequent radiocesium activity determination using gamma spectrometry.

In a few days I will joining the Line P cruise and be among many bright scientists from universities and government agencies. Line P is an oceanographic survey that has been conducted for over 50 years and its route is perpendicular to the coast of British Columbia, stretching 1,500 km into the Pacific Ocean.  Line P is conducted three times a year where various arrays of chemical, physical and biological research take place by scientists from all around. Continue reading Walk the Line, P: The Plan →

Biota, Coastal, Monitoring, Oceanic

August 2016 InFORMal Update

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Coastal monitoring:

We have now processed and released results from over 250 samples collected through the InFORM network! New data, from April and May samples, did not reveal any waters with the Fukushima fingerprint isotope, 134Cs (2 year half-life). Low levels of 137Cs (~30 year half-life) were present in all of the samples. These new data continue to lie along the increasing trend which indicates that the leading edge of the Fukushima plume is in BC’s coastal waters. Continue reading August 2016 InFORMal Update →