Profile: Steve Blasco

Charting a course in underwater exploration

As one of the world’s pre-eminent experts in charting underwater geology, Steve Blasco is routinely on the road—or, more precisely, aboard ship.

Steve works as a marine engineering geophysicist with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). He is specifically renowned for his work in using multibeam sonar for mapping resources. A multibeam sonar is a highly sophisticated instrument that uses multiple sonar beams to create accurate images of the sea floor.

Steve is the recipient of several awards and honours, including the Order of Canada in 2001. These days, his research focuses on advancing our knowledge of the effects of climate change and global warming on the world’s coastlines.

Another career planned

Globetrotting, filmmaking and charting underwater geology are hardly what Steve had in mind back in the late 1960s, when he enrolled at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

The Toronto native had originally planned a career as an explosives expert until failing eyesight intervened. From birth, Steve had only light sensitivity in his right eye. He began to lose sight in his left eye during university. Although his peripheral vision was saved by experimental laser surgery in 1970, today he has only six-percent vision.

Always one to take a positive outlook, Steve says of his current profession, “No one knows what the ocean floor actually looks like, so I am no worse off than anyone else.”

His expeditions over the last 30 years with NRCan’s Geological Survey of Canada have taken him to the Great Lakes, the Canadian Arctic, Russia, Japan, China, Norway, the Caribbean, Bermuda—and even the North Geographic Pole.

Giant mud volcanoes

While working in the waters at the North Pole and in the Beaufort Sea, Steve helped discover giant underwater mud volcanoes called pingos on the ocean floor. He has also found ways to assess the stability of the sea floor under offshore drilling rigs, and he performed the role of a scientist during the production of the 1995 IMAX movie Titanica.

Along the coast of Bermuda, he uncovered evidence that the sea levels were once about nine metres lower than they are today. He also solved the mystery behind a small
stand of 7,300‑year‑old submersed cedars, a story that is told in the film Oceans in
Motion.

Understanding Mother Nature

Steve’s research on rising sea levels will be invaluable to the future infrastructure on our coastlines. For example, higher sea levels mean that hurricanes can reach
further inland and cause greater devastation.

“To protect the coastline, we need a clear understanding of what Mother Nature is doing,” he says.

• Next: Steve Campana says "I’m discovering new information that could change the world through conservation, preservation and smart fishing practices."
• See all profiles