Goal 14: Life Below Water
Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Research
Cross-Institutional Collaboration on Marine Science Research
The Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (BMSC) is a shared campus of the Universities of Calgary, Victoria, British Columbia, Alberta and Simon Fraser University. BMSC provides access to a remarkable diversity of marine, terrestrial, freshwater and cultural sites of the North East Pacific basin. UCalgary’s faculty and students participate in research, undergraduate and graduate-level credit courses, workshops and field trips at the BMSC. Learn more.
Geography Cryosphere and Climate Research Group
Faculty members in the Department of Geography’s Cryosphere and Climate work in cryospheric and climate science, including both mountain and Arctic regions, which includes research into permafrost, sea ice, glaciology, and alpine weather and climate. Learn more.
Teaching, Learning and Student Experience
Working with the World Wildlife Fund
A UCalgary graduate student contributed to the World Wildlife Fund discussion paper on conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity. The report explored the value of strategic environmental assessments, as well as provided insight on suggested practices to address biodiversity concerns in the marine environment. It was used to inform delegates participating in a United Nations conference how to negotiate a new international legally binding instrument under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Learn more.
Marine Sciences Field Education Programs
Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre’s Education Program provides multi-day immersion field trips that can complement UCalgary undergraduate credit courses. While the focus is on marine and coastal sciences, the field trip opportunities can be customized to enhance courses. Learn more.
Northern Seas
UCalgary’s Arctic Institute of North America is leading an interdisciplinary study of human/marine and climate system interactions in arctic North America. Documents including the journals of coastal arctic traders, exploratory expedition members, ship’s logs and commercial whaling and sealing records that span the past 400 years, provide daily weather and marine ecosystem conditions at the local scale. Historical records offer rich data sets on things such as air temperature, sea surface temperature, wind velocity, sea ice conditions and species biogeography.
Campus and Community Impact
Campus
UCalgary is committed to conserving and sustaining our oceans by sourcing sustainable seafood that is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). UCalgary’s food service provider, Aramark, achieved an MSC Chain of Custody certification in 2016, allowing it to source and serve wild-caught seafood that is sustainable and traceable to certified fisheries. MSC is the world's leading certification and ecolabelling program for sustainable wild-caught seafood. Learn more.
National
The Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (BMSC) offers several opportunities for the public across Canada to learn about the exciting and important research their researchers and alumni have been undertaking. In support of the vision to create an open, collaborative and approachable community of scientists at BMSC, they host research seminar series online. They continue the tradition of providing the opportunity for students, staff and researchers to learn about discoveries made in various fields of marine science from experts in their community. Learn more.