A Canadian Research Icebreaker to Study the Changing Arctic Ocean
The want of a dedicated research icebreaker has been identified as the
main obstacle to the development of a suitable Canadian program to study
the changing Arctic Ocean. This situation will be corrected soon, thanks
to a major grant awarded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation to a
Consortium of Canadian universities for the retrofit of the 100-m long
icebreaker Franklin into a state-of-the-art research infrastructure. The
grant also provides funds for the purchase of the specialized scientific
equipment necessary to complete the scientific mission of the icebreaker
and part of the costs of operation during the first 5 years. For
operations in extreme ice conditions, the low-cost Franklin will be
assisted or replaced by the more powerful (but expensive) Louis S.
St-Laurent. This flexible and cost-effective combination will provide
Canadian scientists and their international collaborators to maximize time
at sea for the limited operation budgets available. The infrastructure is
the key to jump-start an urgently needed Canadian-led international
program in arctic oceanography, and will support this program over the
next 20 years.
The maintenance and management of the Franklin are left with the Canadian
Coast Guard. The maintenance of the scientific equipment will be under the
responsibility of the technical services of Quebec-Ocˇan (formerly GIROQ).
The major structural modifications of the ship for science include 299 sq.
m of ultra modern internal laboratories, 8 external scientific containers
(110 sq. m), an internal moon pool for the deployment of instruments in
polar conditions, an acoustic well, a multi-beam sonar, a scientific
landing barge, a dynamic positioning system, a Miranda davit for the
launch and retrieval of a scientific launch while the ship is under way,
several scientific winches, a heavy-duty scientific winch (10 000 m,
600HP) and a complete internal/external communication network.
Some of the main components of the scientific equipment that will be
deployed from the icebreaker include 2 brand-new CTD-Rosette systems, 12
ADCP, 24 RCM-11 current meters, 24 sediment traps, 24 acoustic releases, a
towed undulating probe carrier (V-Fin), a remotely operated vehicle (ROV),
spectrometers, satellite receivers and a radiosonde, a scientific sounder,
seismic reflexion capability, mini-sweep sonar, multi-net zooplankton
samplers, a rectangular midwater trawl, fish trawls, ice camp equipment,
etc...
The retrofit of the ship is expected to be completed by the summer of
2003, in time for the one-year overwintering expedition of the CASES
program in the eastern Beaufort Sea. The research infrastructure will then
be available for other scientific endeavours in the planning, with a
priority given to international joint programs with a significant
university component.
You can also find the full proposal for the icebreaker project on the web
site for CASES at http://www.giroq.ulaval.ca/cases/Status.html
Since the proposal was fully funded, its content represents pretty much
what we will get.
All the best,
Louis Fortier