Port Moody is a comparatively shallow appendage of the Burrard Inlet–Indian Arm system on the southern coast of British Columbia. Although highly stratified, it receives little direct run-off, its oceanography being strongly influenced by the properties of contiguous waters. Wastes from various industries surrounding the harbour have altered the natural characteristics and created mildly polluted conditions. Exchange occurs mainly by turbulent diffusion and advection arising out of tidal action. From current measurements at the entrance to Port Moody, taken on a number of surveys since 1957, net currents were evaluated for periods of a tidal day. A layer of no net motion near 10 m corresponded to a dissolved oxygen minimum. Volume transport through different layers of the harbour was estimated from current data and compared with transport derived from predicted tide heights. The ratios of predicted to measured transport averaged 0.77 on both flood and ebb but ranged from 0.71 to 1.01 on the flood and from 0.55 to 1.00 on the ebb. Estimates of flushing rates, based on exchange ratios in different layers of Port Moody, show that for a survey in September 1962 slightly more than 50% of an introduced contaminant was removed from the upper 12.5-m layer, 83% from the 12.5–17.5-m layer, and 74% from the near-bottom layer, in one tidal day.
Correction to: Identification of a Seasonal Subsurface Oxygen Minimum in Rivers Inlet, British Columbia
