http://www.oceanscanada.org Oceanography in Atlantic Canada Thu, 08 May 2008 11:19:06 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Aquaculture, or the "farming" of aquatic organisms, has been around for thousands of years. It is only in the last thirty or so years, however, that it has become so important. This importance has been driven by the increase in the world's population, dietary shifts and a decrease in the ... http://www.oceanscanada.org/2008/05/aquaculture/ There are as many different types of careers in oceanography as there are different types of fish in the sea. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but there is no one definition that fully describes all of the career opportunities available in this industry. The first career that most people ... http://www.oceanscanada.org/2008/05/careers-in-oceanography/ When John Cabot first sailed to Atlantic Canada's coastline over 500 years ago, he saw waters teeming with life. He is credited with proclaiming that there were so many fish that they could "not only be taken with the net but in baskets let down with a stone, so that ... http://www.oceanscanada.org/2008/05/fisheries-management/ Hundreds of years ago, explorers charted the ocean depths by dropping lead lines from their boats to the ocean floor. While this may have been sufficient then, increasing sea-lane traffic has fueled the need for more accurate information on the depth of the water and the contour of the ocean ... http://www.oceanscanada.org/2008/05/hydrography/ Seawater is made up of approximately 96.5% water, 3.5% sea salts, some dissolved organic matter, other sediments, dissolved gases, and trace metals. Any changes to the amount of these substances, even just a minute amount, can have great consequences for marine organisms. For instance, dissolved salts affect osmotic pressure. The ... http://www.oceanscanada.org/2008/05/marine-chemistry/ Small plants and animals that can not move independent of ocean currents are called plankton. The plants, called phytoplankton, capture the sun's rays and fix this energy into biomass. The small animals, called zooplankton, range from microscopic, single-celled organisms, to fish larvae, and all the way up to larger jellyfish. ... http://www.oceanscanada.org/2008/05/marine-ecology/ Off the coast of Atlantic Canada lie vast deposits of oil and gas, the most valuable resources that can be taken from the ocean. Oil and gas are the remains of ancient plants and animals buried in sediment layers and then altered by heat. Five kilometres down beneath the ocean ... http://www.oceanscanada.org/2008/05/offshore-gas-oil-exploration/