Building the World's First Multi-node Cabled Ocean Observatories (NEPTUNE Canada and VENUS, Canada): Science, Realities, Challenges and Opportunities

NEPTUNE Canada (North-East Pacific undersea networked experiments) and VENUS (Victoria experimental network under the sea) will be the world's first multi-node cabled ocean observatories, with installation in 2006-08. The abundant power, high bandwidth communications, and hundreds of sensors delivering data and imagery in real or near real time will transform both our acquisition of knowledge and our understanding of the ocean environment. With the world's oceans in a state of crisis, the development of cabled observatory technology is most timely and will offer a data archive of unparalleled importance for new discoveries.