Figure 2. Monument commemorating Bamfield’s transpacific cable.
critical in Vancouver. Where the telegraph network once extended, there is now a seafloor observatory. The North East Pacific TimeSeries Undersea Networked Experiments system enables scientists to communicate with the ocean itself, using undersea cables to track
seafloor processes as they occur in real time. Here, marine science has built on the foundations of the cable industry. AlcatelLucent designed and laid the cable. Researchers conduct maintenance on the network from the BMSC. Up the inlet at Port Alberni, the network
terminates in a station built for a 1960s coaxial system. My trip to Bamfield revealed the extensive residual effects of cable networks: just one system has helped to support a tourism industry, generate technological developments, and maintain wide-ranging infrastructure investments.
Those who have been in the industry for decades know that the submerged histories of cable laying matter. Not only are old stations and technologies foundational for new ones, but the knowledge passed down from generation to generation of workers keeps our networks stable and