Video: FAST monitoring with FORCE

Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy (FORCE) has released a video of the recently concluded FAST-1 monitoring platform trials in the Minas Passage, Nova Scotia.

FAST-1 monitoring platform was retrieved-mid July after 27 days of sea trials, as previously reported.

The platform is 4 meters long, and weighs around 4.5 tonnes, and was developed to provide better understanding of the environmental conditions in the Bay of Fundy.

The platform’s current sensor array includes:

• Acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) and the Vectron – measuring current speed and turbulence,
• Acoustic zooplankton and fish profiler – assessing zooplankton and fish density and depth distribution,
• Water quality sensors – measuring water conductivity, temperature, and salinity,
• Optical sensor – measuring sedimentation size, distribution and volume concentration using laser diffraction,
• Orientation sensor – measuring pitch, roll and heading – crucial to platform placement and the analysis of all other instruments,
• Tide, turbidity, and current sensors.

The monitoring equipment on the platform includes the Aanderaa SeaGuard Platform, the Sequoia LISST, ASL Acoustic Profiler, Nortek Signature 500, and the TRDI Sentinel V s100.

Many companies and several Atlantic Canada universities have been involved in work with the FAST platform, including Acadia University, Dynamic Systems Analysis, and EMO Marine Technologies, amongst others.