Folger Passage 

Folger Passage NEPTUNE Canada node is located on the continental shelf near the entrance to Barkley Sound, Vancouver Island. The node has two study sites, one is the DEEP site is on the seafloor at 100 meters deep, and second is the PINNACLE site, near the top of a rock outcropping at 20 meters deep.

Image credit: OOI Regional Scale Nodes Program at the University of Washington

Complex wind and ocean current patterns provide favourable conditions for upwelling, which brings high-nutrient rich waters to the surface. The cold, rising water carries phosphates and nitrates, which act as fertilizer to the phytoplankton that grow in the sunlit waters at the ocean’s surface. Since phytoplankton are the primary producers in the food chain, areas that support large phytoplankton blooms tend to have large fish and marine mammal populations. See ONews Issue 7 for more on plankton.

The shallow Pinnacle site is pounded by huge ocean waves,
and displays characteristics of near-shore habitats.

Deep Sea Laboratory #3: Barkley Canyon

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