Storytelling for Canada’s National Research Council’s Ocean Program
Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) has an Ocean Program dedicated to the development of the sustainable blue economy, and which supports over 60 research projects.
To showcase their work and that of their partners, the NRC asked us to interview their researchers and partners and to produce 30 articles in partnership with the NRC about the ocean challenges they are working on and how they’re coming up with solutions.
As of fall, 2024, we’ve produced 19 articles, and 7 are published on the Ocean Program’s website.
Living in Ottawa, we see the wind tunnel with “NRC” on the side every time we go to the airport, but up until working with NRC, I had no idea the breadth of the work they do, all to support the Canadian public and Canadian businesses.
The NRC’s spectacular research facilities and research minds are tackling some of Canada’s big challenges, and the Ocean Program is giving companies and institutions access to testing, data collection, and computer and physical modelling, that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Not to mention the help and advice of NRC’s expert research staff. As a group, the NRC research team is dedicated, and I’m enjoying each conversation, as they help me to understand their research and what drives them.
During the project, I’ve had the opportunity to tour three of the NRC’s research facilities, which are key to ocean research in Canada. If you ever get the chance to tour these spots, I highly recommend it:
Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia
A 30-minute drive south outside of Halifax, the Ketch Harbour labs have an amazing view: straight out over the Atlantic Ocean. The lab was built as close to the coastline as possible so that seawater can be pumped directly in to study phytoplankton (the base of the marine food web) and for growing local algae, like sugar kelp.
St. John’s, Newfoundland
The NRC’s facilities in St. John’s include one of the largest ice tanks in the world. NRC researchers study ice and how it forms in nature, so they can create similar conditions in their tank. Companies building ships to navigate ice conditions can work with the NRC to have a model of their ship made and then ‘towed’ (pulled) through ‘sea ice’ to study the forces the ice puts on the ship’s hull. They also have a tank and a test dummy covered in sensors to study how well different clothing options protect humans if they fall into icy waters.
Ottawa, Ontario
In the east end of Ottawa, the NRC has a massive campus (I got lost!) with spy-sounding building names like its Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering’s facility, ‘M32’. Here the NRC can recreate coastal wave conditions and study the impacts of sea level rise on erosion and different ways to protect Canada’s coastline. They can even create physical scale models of riverways to look at where sediment accumulates and how a change in the shape of the riverbed may help to decrease the chances of buildups that exacerbate flooding.