Government of Canada announces major investments in scientific research to protect Canadian waters from oil spills

PR Newswire

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.

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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

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