ADAPTING DURING COVID RESTRICTIONS ONC agility amidst COVID-19 When ONC’s crew embarked on the year’s first maintenance expedition in March 2020 aboard Canadian Coast Guard ship John P. Tully, they had no idea they would be returning to a very different world on 13 March. After COVID-19 put the world on lockdown—and the majority of ONC staff transitioned to working from home— the operations team at the Marine Technology Centre seamlessly continued ONC’s essential work of maintaining and expanding our growing network, guided by a COVID-19 customized safe work plan. The usual complexity of working in the deep sea was certainly exacerbated during the pandemic, but ONC’s agility allowed the team to successfully maintain, upgrade, and expand hundreds of offshore, inshore, and coastal ocean observing instruments and sensors. Atsea expeditions in June, September, and October 2020 were conducted under strict COVID-19 safety protocols, following measures provided by the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the US Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System.
#ONCabyss Expedition 2020 The crew hauls in a cable aboard the EV Nautilus.
4 | Ocean Networks Canada / Annual Report FY20/21
ONC’s Learning & Community Engagement team also adjusted their online offerings, causing little interruption in how ONC’s continuous real-time data is shared with parents, teachers, kids at home, undergraduate students, and ocean enthusiasts.
