BOSTON, MA, March 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Keeping our
oceans and coastal areas clean, safe and healthy for current and
future generations is a top priority for the Government of
Canada. That is why we are making
significant investments, under the Oceans Protection Plan, to help
protect Canadian coasts and waterways from oil spills.
Today, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister
of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, Parliamentary
Secretary Sean Casey announced that
six international organizations will receive more than $4.1 million for research projects that will help
improve protocols and decision-making to minimize the environmental
impacts of oil spills.
The recipients include: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation; Johns Hopkins
University; New Jersey Institute of
Technology; SINTEF Ocean; Texas A&M
University; and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
These projects are part of the $45.5
million Multi-Partner Research Initiative, announced last
year to leverage collaboration among oil spill experts in
Canada and abroad to ensure we
have the capability to provide the best scientific advice and tools
to respond to oil spills in our waters.
A total of 35 Canadian and international projects will focus on
a wide range of innovative strategies and technologies to aid in
oil spill response. Under this initiative, researchers will
investigate computer modeling to predict the movement and fate of
spilled oil, the use of chemical dispersants and herders, the
efficiency of in-situ (or onsite) burning of oil spilled at sea and
the potential of bio-based agents to disperse oil through
biodegradation.
The Multi-Partner Research Initiative will support a variety of
different but interrelated research projects on alternative
response measures for oil spills while facilitating partnerships
among the best researchers across Canada and around the world. These
collaborative efforts will improve our knowledge of how oil spills
behave, how best to contain them and clean them up, and how to
minimize their environmental impacts.
Quotes
"Collaboration is key when working to respond to oil spills.
These new partnerships will lead to more scientific knowledge,
innovative response measures and advanced technologies that will
help minimize the impacts of oil spills on our marine and coastal
waters. We are working together to keep our oceans and our coasts
clean, healthy and safe."
The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Fisheries,
Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard
"The Government of Canada is
making major investments in scientific research to help protect
Canadian waters and coasts from oil spills and other harmful marine
incidents. Funding awarded to Canadian and international
organizations will support vital research and technologies that
better enable us to respond to marine incidents and protect our
precious ocean ecosystems for generations to come."
Sean Casey, Parliamentary
Secretary to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian
Coast Guard
Quick Facts
- The $1.5 billion Oceans
Protection Plan is the largest investment ever made to ensure our
coasts are healthier, safer and better protected.
- In December 2017, the Government
of Canada announced the
$45.5 million Multi-Partner Research
Initiative to improve collaboration with oil response experts
around the world to advance oil spill research in Canada to minimize the environmental impacts
of oil spills.
Related Products
- Multi-Partner Research Initiative backgrounder
Backgrounder
Protecting our marine and coastal areas from
potential oil spills
Oceans Protection Plan
Canada's coasts are home to
productive ecosystems that support the livelihoods of Indigenous
and coastal communities. Under the Oceans Protection Plan,
Fisheries and Oceans Canada will bring together top researchers
from across the country and around the world to increase our
understanding of how oil spills behave, how best to contain them
and clean them up, and how to minimize their environmental
impacts.
The $45.5 million Multi-Partner
Research Initiative will draw on the knowledge and experience of
oil spill experts in Canada and
abroad. The initiative will support at least 35 projects and give
rise to new partnerships, improved knowledge and new technologies
that will help raise awareness and mitigate the impacts of oil
spills and other marine incidents.
While most MPRI funding will go toward research initiatives in
Canada (to be announced
separately), six international organizations will receive
investments for 12 projects under the Multi-Partner Research
Initiative:
|
Recipient
|
Name of
project
|
Timeframe
|
Funding
amount
|
|
Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Canberra,
Australia
(Dr. Elisabeth
Fulton)
|
Direct and indirect
ecosystem responses to oil spills and options for
interventions
|
Six months
|
$204,101
|
|
Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Canberra,
Australia
(Dr. Pascal
Craw)
|
Combined microbial
sampler and physical sensor payload for rapid oil spill
surveillance at depth
|
Six months
|
$243,225
|
|
Johns Hopkins
University Baltimore, Maryland, USA
(Dr. Joseph
Katz)
|
Effects of crude oil
properties, dispersants and weathering on the breakup of plumes and
slicks
|
Four years
|
$760,000
|
|
New Jersey Institute
of Technology
Newark, New
Jersey, USA
(Dr. Michel C.
Boufadel)
|
Oil droplet formation
from underwater releases with and without the presence of gas at
various dispersant-to-oil ratios – implications for herders and
dispersant effectiveness when oil reaches the surface
|
Four years
|
$749,800
|
|
New Jersey Institute
of Technology
Newark, New
Jersey, USA
(Dr. Michel C.
Boufadel)
|
Capturing the
behaviour of oil on the metre scale – oil convergence due to
waterfronts and vertical advection
|
Four years
|
$299,999
|
|
New Jersey Institute
of Technology
Newark, New
Jersey, USA
(Dr. Lin
Zhao)
|
Impact of particle
shape and hydrophobicity on the formation of oil particle
aggregates – a combined experimental/numerical investigation
leading to formation of a predictive model
|
Four years
|
$556,025
|
|
SINTEF
Ocean
Trondheim,
Norway
(Per
Daling)
|
Artificial energy by
water flushing after dispersant treatment in calm seas or iced
waters
|
One year
|
$45,000
|
|
SINTEF
Ocean
Trondheim,
Norway
(Per
Daling)
|
Better
characteristics of burned residues from field- and
laboratory-generated onsite burning
|
One year
|
$110,000
|
|
SINTEF Ocean,
Trondheim, Norway (Per Daling)
|
Low sulphur fuels – a
new generation of marine fuel oils
|
Nine
months
|
$110,000
|
|
SINTEF
Ocean
Trondheim,
Norway
(Roman
Netzer)
|
Assessing
effectiveness of bio-based agents for oil spill treatment in Arctic
and subarctic environments
|
One year
|
$40,000
|
|
Texas A&M
University
College Station,
Texas, USA
(Dr. Scott A.
Socolofsky)
|
Computer modeling to
forecast risks, needs and challenges for responses to offshore oil
spills
|
Four years
|
$400,000
|
|
Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole,
Massachusetts, USA
(Dr. Collin
Ward)
|
Quantifying the
effect of oil photochemical oxidation on the performance of
chemical herders in Canadian waters
|
Three
years
|
$637,666
|
|
Total:
$4,155,816
|
March 2019
Associated Links
- Multi-Partner Research Initiative
- News release – Canada is
investing in science to protect our waters from oil spills
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SOURCE Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada