Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility

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Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility

What can ROPOS do for you?

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Canada’s national facility for deep-sea research, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) ROPOS, has made it possible for ocean scientists to conduct research on the ecology of hydrothermal vents, sponge reefs and cold-water corals, and the geochemistry and economic potential of sulphide mineral and gas hydrate deposits, and to begin pioneering work on cabled deep-sea observatories. The Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility (CSSF) and university partners have operated ROPOS since 1996.

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What is C.S.S.F.?

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The Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility is a nationally registered not-for-profit corporation. Established to manage and operate the ROPOS system once the Department of Fisheries and Oceans could no longer fund underwater research vehicles, the CSSF successfully transferred the ROPOS operation from government to the private sector.

CSSF works mainly through contracts with small local companies. Fielding a consistently successful team for operations and maintenance of the system, CSSF has earned strong client support. Working relationships have been established with the University of Victoria, University of Washington, the NOAA Vents program and the NOAA West Coast Undersea Research Center, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), GEOMAR (a German research support agency) as well as Natural Resources Canada and several other Canadian universities.
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ROCLS

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The remotely operated cable laying system (ROCLS) is a recent upgrade to ROPOS. ROCLS latches beneath ROPOS for deployment of extension cables for seafloor observatories. This unique system utilizes the ROPOS ROV with a specially designed cable laying spool and operating system that allows for the deployment of smaller diameter cables that cannot be laid in deep water by a cable ship. The benefits of an ROV capable of laying cables, include the ability to maneuver the cable route around obstacles on the seafloor and connect instruments arrays to the nodes. ROCLS underwent successful sea trials in August 2007 and laid a six kilometer extension cable for the VENUS project in February 2008 that links an array of piezometers in the Fraser River delta.

Since 2009, ROPOS has successfully deployed numerous interconnection cables for the Neptune Canada Ocean Observatory including two 12.5 kilometre bottom pressure recorder cables at depths of 2600 metres . ROPOS also carried out a technically difficult cable lay which began atop a pinnacle rock in only 20 metres of water with heavy shore surge, then followed a convoluted path down the flanks of the peak into deeper water and on to connect to the Neptune Canada Folger Passage node.

For more details on ROCLS please read "Observatory Cable Laying System" written by Keith Shepherd, Keith Tamburri and Reuben Mills.

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