“In terms of what a multi-sensor seabed platform is, it rests along the ocean floor and has the ability to hold a wide variety of instruments that collect different oceanographic parameters,” said Kennedy Sittler, Marine Technician at COVE. “My day-to-day is focused on monitoring Stella Maris, and any other tasks that need to be done in terms of Stella. This includes a lot of tour visits, communication with clients, things like that.”
“Base sensors are sensors that COVE owns are used to collect baseline data that companies and clients have access to, to compare or correlate with their data. We also have client sensors, which are owned by clients and are on the platform to help with their product development, promotion or testing. The access to those base sensors helps them to validate that process,” said Sittler.
“For the Marine Canary, other data like Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) and tidal is important because it helps them correlate oceanographic parameters with the mussel’s behaviour to help understand them. So, say there is a difference in the mussels behaviour, IntegraSEE can go through the base data to determine if there was an event that took place to help explain why the mussels reacted the way they did,” said Sittler
Last summer, COVE signed a memorandum of understanding with ocean tech companies in Germany and Norway with the aim to deepen global expertise and strengthen commercialization capabilities in the ocean technology sector. The Stella Maris has the capability to allow companies from these countries to put sensors on the platform and receive real-time data from wherever they may be in the world, a capability that is growing international interest.
“Because the data is accessible globally online, it is a platform where those organizations can have their products on the platform and access that real-time data from Norway or Germany,” said Sittler. “Not only is Stella Maris helping promote that partnership, it is also helping to promote different products and the promotion of technology in Atlantic Canada.”