The Department of Ocean Sciences, Faculty of Science, is located in a complex of buildings known as the Oceans Science Centre (OSC), maintained by Memorial University in Logy Bay. It is located ~15 km from the University's main campus (where the Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography is located) and ~10 km from the Fisheries and Marine Institute (EDMO record id 2759).
The OSC is a major facility for marine research on the Atlantic coast, and is one of Canada's largest marine laboratories. By virtue of its location, the department provides Canadian and international scientists and students access to the flora and fauna of the northwest Atlantic Ocean and is uniquely situated for shore-based studies of the cold-ocean processes and subarctic, Arctic and deep-sea organisms.
A strategic goal of the OSC is to carry out world-class research that focuses on organisms and processes in cold oceans, and to provide high quality educational and training opportunities, particularly at the graduate level. Research areas include physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology; biological and chemical oceanography; behavioural and population ecology; and aquaculture and fisheries.
History
In 1949, the Memorial University College (est. 1925, located on Parade Street in St. John's), was elevated to university status as Memorial University of Newfoundland. It moved to Elizabeth Avenue (current main campus location) in 1961. Marine biology activities began within the Biology Department in 1961 and led to the construction of the Marine Sciences Research Laboratory at Logy Bay in 1967, in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada. The laboratory was administered by the Biology Department but also used by other departments and faculties. New research buildings were built and added over the years. In 1988 the laboratory merged with the Institute of Cold Ocean Science (created in 1977 to facilitate oceanographic research carried out by various science departments) and became the Ocean Sciences Centre, within the university's Faculty of Science. The Centre became a Department in 2012.
