Design and operation of a multi node cabled observatory

Over the last three years, the University of Victoria and OceanWorks have designed built and installed the world's first multi node advanced cabled observatory. Located in Saanich Inlet and in the Strait of Georgia on the West Coast of Canada, the Victoria Experimental Network Under the Sea (VENUS) cabled observatory provides power and communications to numerous under water oceanographic instruments and has been continuously delivering near real time data to scientist since February 2006. This paper describes the VENUS Project life from concept to delivery of science data. Details of the architecture, design, capabilities, deployment and commissioning of both observatories will be provided along with lessons learnt. An overview of some of the data management and usage issues is provided.