The BCGS executive are pleased to announce our upcoming BCGS 2026 Roundup Breakfast.
| Speaker: | Martin Scherwath, PhD Senior Staff Scientist Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) at the University of Victoria |
| Title: | Exploring and utilizing the offshore – From Ocean Networks Canada in general to geological carbon storage in particular |
| Date: | Tuesday, January 27, 2026 |
| Time: | 7:30am – 9:45am PST |
| Location: | Pan Pacific Vancouver Oceanview Suite 1-2 Suite 300, 999 Canada Place Vancouver BC, V6C 3B5 |
| Registration: | Industry – $90 Student – $25 |
Breakfast will be served buffet style and consist of fresh fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, freshly baked muffins/croissants, toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, fried potatoes, tomatoes, along with juice/coffee/tea/water.
Please register and pay via Paypal below. Choose “Checkout” to pay by credit card. Your Paypal payment is confirmation of your registration.
Space is limited and this event will sell out. Make sure to register early!
Abstract:
Exploring and utilizing the offshore – From Ocean Networks Canada in general to geological carbon storage in particular
Martin Scherwath, PhD
Ocean Networks Canada (ONC)
For two decades, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) at the University of Victoria has been streaming scientific data via ocean cabled networks, first in BC and now covering all of Canada’s three coasts as well as parts of the Southern Ocean. The ocean-based data not only support general oceanographic research but more comprehensively from geology, geophysics, chemistry, biology, acoustics, all the way to particle physics from neutrino observations in the dark abyssal depths. Applied sciences like early earthquake warning or tsunami inundation modelling are also supported. One particular research aspect is climate change mitigation via carbon dioxide removal, and this presentation will highlight the Solid Carbon project that aims to use the ocean crust basalt rock as a vast global carbon storage reservoir. During a 6-year funding period a CO2 injection experiment is planned where ONC’s NEPTUNE observatory enables exhaustive monitoring. ONC data are openly and freely accessible (https://data.oceannetworks.ca), and collaboration is more than welcome.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Martin Scherwath is one of ONC’s Senior Staff Scientists with a focus on gas hydrates, seabed dynamics (turbidity currents), and carbon sequestration projects. As a marine geophysicist, he has expertise in the geophysical imaging of subsurface structures. His research predominantly uses seismic methods to better understand the dynamics of the seafloor in the major fields of gas hydrates and natural gas seepage, as well as subduction zone processes and marine hazards. At ONC, Martin is the contact person for scientific experiments that use the seafloor crawler “Wally” at the Barkley Hydrates site, the Delta Dynamics Laboratory of the Fraser River, and sonar imaging applied to hydrate mounds and gas seepage on the continental slope. Martin is also a coordinator of ONC’s Solid Carbon project, specifically leading the monitoring aspects as this feasibility study transitions toward a demonstration experiment. Martin holds an M.Sc. in Exploration Geophysics from Leeds University and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. Martin was appointed Adjunct Assistant Professor in 2016 at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria where he still teaches and supervises graduate students and post-docs.