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2
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3
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- Purpose and Hypothesis
- Background Information
- Materials List
- Procedures
- Data Collected
- Conclusion
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- The main purposes of the project are:
- 1) to learn how to interpret tidal current data
- 2) to learn how to use the functions of a GPS and depth sounder
- 3) to learn how to record data
- 4) to see whether there is a relationship between the speed of the
tidal currents that flow in Colburne Passage between the north end of
the Saanich Peninsula (Lands End) and Piers Island and the depth of the water and
the distance from shore.
- My hypothesis is that the currents will be faster where the water is
deeper and the shore is further away, and slower where it is shallower
and close to shore.
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- I live on Piers Island, which is about 35 kilometres north of Victoria,
B.C. Piers Island is separated from Vancouver Island by Colburne
Passage, which is a one kilometer across. Colburne Passage has strong
tidal currents that I see every day in front of our house, and that we
travel with or against as we between Vancouver Island and Piers Island.
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- 16e runabout boat with a 50 h.p. outboard engine
- Depth sounder
- GPS with built-in chart of Colburne Passage area
- Big plastic bucket half full of rocks and 20 meters of rope
- Tidal current data from Institute of Ocean Sciences pointing out time s
of maximum ebb and flood currents for an area one kilometer west of
Colburne Passage
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- The procedures for collecting data were as follows:
- 1) Contact the Institute of Ocean Sciences (IOS) to see if they had
information about when tidal currents in Colburne Passage are
strongest
- 2) Analyze the tidal current data from IOS to figure out the best
times to take measurements in Colburne Passage
- Set up five places in Colburne Passage to measure the current and
depth. These sites were set up using a GPS and a depth sounder. With
the depth sounder I could choose sites that had different depths and
with the GPS I could accurately mark these sites on the chart on the
GPS. I did this by setting up way points.
- 4) Once before peak tidal current ebb and once before peak tidal
current flow we went out in the boat to the five way points set up on
the GPS chart. At these points we dropped a bucket full of rocks tied
to a rope over the side of the boat. This was to help ganchorh the
boat to the water and to make sure that our drifting was because of
the current and not the wind. (We could only go out in the boat to
take measurements when the wind was weak.) We wanted to measure the
current as close to the bottom of the water as we could.
- 5) Once the bucket was down, I wrote down the depth from the sounder,
and from the GPS the time, the latitude and longitude, the direction
the boat was drifting, and
the speed it was drifting at.
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Notes
