Sea of opportunities

Remy Ouellet rarely missed an opportunity for unique experiences and hands-on learning as he completed his master’s degree.

Thursday, October 17, 2024 By Moira Baird

This week he graduates with a Master of Applied Ocean Technology (Ocean Mapping), which is offered by the Marine Institute’s School of Ocean Technology.

‘Unique program’

Mr. Oeullet, who also holds a bachelor of science in marine science and zoology from the University of Brisbane, Australia, says he was drawn to the master’s program for a variety of reasons. 

“I wanted to broaden my academic scope of interests, instead of following through into a strictly marine biology and marine resource management focus.

“The program is also unique. It’s not quite technical focused or limited to oceanography, but also offers exposure to a variety of fields, such as remote sensing, ocean tectonics and dynamics, and Python coding for data analyses.”

It also provided an opportunity to reconnect with family in Canada.

Surveys and outreach

A Canadian citizen, he was born and raised in France and calls the French river town, Saint-Mammès, home. It’s where his parents live and where he plans to spend the winter before returning to St. John’s next year.

He will also work remotely on contract jobs landed prior to completing his degree.

“I’ll be helping prepare the RV Moses Appaqaq for the 2025 survey season in the Arctic and developing a marine science outreach program for secondary and post-secondary students from Qikiqtani communities.”

The research vessel is operated by the fishing division of Qikiqtaaluk Corp., the for-profit development arm of Qikiqtani Inuit Association in Nunavut.

GIS tools and coding

Mr. Ouellet opted for the project-based route for his degree – focusing on ways to classify glass sponge reefs. Glass sponges (Hexactinellida) are deep-ocean animals that build intricate skeletal structures out of silica, or glass.

“I spent three semesters researching and attempting to develop a semi-automated seabed classification tool of Hexactinellid sponge reefs off the coast of British Columbia from bathymetric data. This involved acquiring data from both private and public entities, mapping using GIS, and Python coding with much support from my instructor, Dr. Sean Mullan.”

His program courses also provide opportunities for additional project work. Among them: researching the potential use of acoustics in assessing the health of seagrass habitat; examining how glass sponge reefs on continental shelves modify localized ocean currents; and mapping benthic habitat using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools.

Mapping world’s oceans

Last year, Mr. Ouellet was one of two master’s students who learned to process and evaluate satellite-derived bathymetry data and mentored undergraduate students as part of the TCarta internship program.

TCarta is a Colorado-based global provider of hydrospatial services. The internships provided opportunities to expand their ocean mapping skills, gain experience with specialized software and contribute seabed data to a global initiative to map the world’s oceans by 2030.

“I was able to contribute to the GEBCO Seabed 2030 endeavour by developing high-quality satellite-derived bathymetry products and learning first-hand the many steps and complexities of this particular workflow.”