Bedford Institute of Oceanography

The Bedford Institute of Oceanography is a major Government of Canada ocean research facility located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. BIO is the largest ocean research station in Canada. Established in 1962 as Canada's first, and currently largest, federal centre for oceanographic research, BIO derives its name from the Bedford Basin, an inland bay comprising the northern part of Halifax Harbour, upon which it is located.Spread out over 40 acres of a former Royal Canadian Navy property near Shannon Park in Dartmouth, BIO consists of a series of interconnected buildings housing research labs and offices, as well as docks for Canadian Coast Guard and RCN research vessels.As the federal government seeks to concentrate its operations in the Halifax Regional Municipality, BIO is being considered for additional office buildings to house other non-oceanographic and non-research organizations and their employees. As such, new buildings have been built for the Canadian Coast Guard as well as Environment Canada in recent years.HistoryFollowing World War II, the principal marine research facility of the Government of Canada was the St. Andrews Biological Station. Dr. W.E. van Steenburgh, Director-General of Scientific Services of the Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, championed the establishment of a modern oceanographic institute on Bedford Basin. The Bedford Institute of Oceanography and its research vessel, the CCGS Hudson, were both inaugurated in 1962.