Coloured circles trace the paths of particles released from the north in the morning of August 8, 1999. The trajectories provide a rough sketch of Lagrangian transport. The models do not incorporate wind forcing, stratification, or spatial variation in bottom friction. Effects such as estuarine circulation and separation around headlands are not included. Markers initially in close proximity can take quite different paths and experience significant dispersion.
Some initial coordinates produce trajectories ending in the Strait of Georgia.
This model indicates that tidal motion transports materials as far as 15 km and produces island-scale dispersion over a single tidal cycle. The latter figure may be biased low by the hour the drifer spent caught in the wake of Turn Island - or it may be more appropiate to average in that stagnation in the wake. The data set is large, encompassing over 400 CTD casts, about 100 ADCP transects, multiple dirfter runs and some video photography from shore, boats and aircraft. Thus there is still much more that could be done with the data. And in fact, a small group of students has still intentions to analyze the data a bit further and to publish a paper.