Ocean News

Norwegian marine equipment and technology firm Kongsberg will provide scientific sensors and scientific handling equipment for Germany’s new ocean research vessel, the 135-metre Meteor IV. The new 10,000GT vessel will be able to house 35 scientists plus 36 crew. Meteor IV will be built by MeyerFassmer Spezialschiffbau (MFSB) for the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The vessel, due for delivery in 2026, replaces existing research vessels Meteor and Poseidon.“We…

A confession. I'm part of a very big problem that's easy to ignore. Last year, I contributed the U.S. average-per-person 300 pounds of plastic garbage to wherever it went after convenient curbside pickup. So out of sight, out of mind, right? Not really, but does it matter? Yes, it does.In a fascinating recent report, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine politely told us that we're choking ourselves to death on manufactured plastic waste and that 80% of the harmful plastic in the ocean comes from land-based sources.It's the micro-plastics…

Ocean explorer and scientist Dr. Robert D. Ballard opens up on his personal life and his world-famous ocean discoveries like never before in his new book, “Into the Deep.” Best known as ‘the man who found the Titanic,’ Marine Technology Reporter had the opportunity to interview Ballard on the contents of the book, a book released yesterday with a follow-up National Geographic television special scheduled for June 14, 2021, taking a deep dive into his dyslexia, the importance of his family throughout his career…

Scientists working remotely with Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) have completed a first look at deep waters in the Coral Sea, despite the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the only at-sea science expeditions to continue operations, the team has discovered the deepest living hard corals in Eastern Australian waters, sighted fish in new regions and identified up to 10 new marine species.SOI’s R/V Falkor spent the 46 days in the Coral Sea Marine Park, one of the largest protected areas in the world.

Search & Rescue algorithm identify hidden “traps” in ocean waters, helping to more quickly identify regions where objects — and missing people — may have converged.The ocean is a messy and turbulent space, where winds and weather kick up waves in all directions. When an object or person goes missing at sea, the complex, constantly changing conditions of the ocean can confound and delay critical search-and-rescue operations.Now researchers at MIT, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)…

New research from Queen’s University Belfast and Liverpool John Moores University reveals how the microplastic pollution crisis is threatening biodiversity, specifically the ability of hermit crabs to select a shell needed for their survival.Currently up to 10 percent of global plastic production ends up in the sea although the understanding of how this affects marine life is limited. The research, published today in Biology Letters, focused on the impact of plastics on hermit crabs…

There is a new buzzword in the ocean science/sensing community. The word is eDNA, an abbreviation for environmental DNA. This refers to DNA that can be extracted from environmental samples without first isolating any target organisms. In the maritime community such samples are taken from water. All living organisms leave traces of DNA in their environments which is an indicator of their presence over time. This DNA is released into the environment through the biological process of living animals or by the decomposition of dead organisms.

Greater understanding of what goes on in the ocean is starting to become a reality – thanks to growing use of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles and developments in biological sensing. Elaine Maslin takes a look at what a team at MBARI has been doing.Gathering biological data from the oceans remains a significant challenge for oceanographers. Now, an increasing range of unmanned vehicles that are able to work together is becoming available, as is an ability to collect biological data using them.It sounds straight forward…

A new partnership between World Ocean Council (WOC) and WISTA International will advance women’s leadership in the sustainable blue economy.The WOC and WISTA is initiating a partnership to advance women’s leadership in the ocean and coastal business community and the Sustainable Blue Economy, said a press note.WISTA is a global organization connecting female executives and professionals from all sectors of the maritime industry. With more than 3,000 members in 49 countries, WISTA leads with the conviction that gender diversity and inclusions are the keys to providing a sustainable future for the shipping, trading, and logistics industries worldwide.Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou…

A Joint Working Group (JWG) of three UN agencies – the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) - met in Torremolinos, Spain, to address illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing (23-25 October).IUU fishing refers to fishing which is carried out without proper authorization. This can undermine national, regional and global efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks and result in poor safety and working conditions for fishers. Tackling the issue requires collaboration by all stakeholders.The group recommended the three organizations promote…

The Dutch non-profit The Ocean Cleanup has just announced a new device to catch plastic before if flows into the ocean.The organization that develops advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic, unveiled its invention to prevent the unrelenting flow of plastic pollution into the world’s oceans.The Interceptor, under development by The Ocean Cleanup since 2015, complements the organization’s founding mission by attacking the flow of plastic garbage at its source, the world’s vast network of rivers.“To truly rid the oceans of plastic, we need to both clean up the legacy and close the tap, preventing more plastic from reaching the oceans in the first place.

The European Union (EU) is set to launch a new interactive map, dubbed The Ocean Tracker, to follow the commitments, made by governments, businesses and NGOs, worth more than €10 billion ($11.13bn) so far.EU Commissioner Karmenu Vella, responsible for Environment, Maritime affairs and Fisheries said: "With the delivery of The Ocean Tracker, the EU demonstrates its leadership in ocean sustainability”.The Ocean tracker, itself a commitment made in 2017, when the EU hosted the Our Ocean in Malta, will make sure that the progress of all pledges is clear to see.EU also announced 22 new commitments at the 2019 edition of Our Ocean conference…

30 companies and institutional investors have signed up to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Sustainable Ocean Principles committing to take action to secure a healthy and productive ocean.UNGC is a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact works with companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.The signatories to the principles include the container ship and supply vessel operator A.P. Møller – Mærsk, food and beverage company PepsiCo, and Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages one of the world’s largest funds with over US$ 1 trillion in assets.

MAN Energy Solutions has joined a new climate grouping, dedicated to developing zero-emission vessels by 2030 in connection with the UN Climate Action Summit.The ‘Getting to Zero Coalition’ is a partnership between the Global Maritime Forum, the Friends of Ocean Action, and the World Economic Forum.The Coalition comprises a broad grouping of industry players that includes equipment manufacturers, shipowners, energy companies and fuel providers, financial institutions, ports, customers and logistic companies, governments and IGOs.The Coalition has already planned a series of initial steps including the creation of a shared industry roadmap…

The World Ocean Council (WOC) and the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) have signed an MOU on long-term cooperation.The partnership agreement provides a commitment and framework for the two bodies to collaborate on ocean sustainable economic development through information exchange, communications, events, joint working groups, etc. on topics of shared interest.More specifically, PIANC and WOC will begin by working together to develop tools and methods for port and coastal infrastructure adaptation that can be scaled up to address port resiliency needs, especially regarding extreme weather events affecting…

The geophysical services provider SAExploration Holdings successfully completed the largest shallow water ocean-bottom marine project in its history.Contracted to SAExploration by a major national oil company, the project, located in the Arabian Sea off the coast of India, utilized over 20 vessels, which included three ocean-bottom node deployment vessels and two seismic source vessels operating in dual source/simultaneous source mode.A total of 5,400 ocean-bottom nodes and in excess of 1,300 kilometers of rope were deployed on the project to acquire approximately 1,200 square kilometers of full fold seismic data.Jeff Hastings, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer…

The Guidelines for the monitoring and assessment of plastic litter and microplastics in the ocean have been published by the Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP).GESAMP is a body that advises the United Nations system on the scientific aspects of marine environmental protection.The new set of publicly-available guidelines for monitoring plastics and microplastics in the oceans will help harmonize how scientists and others assess the scale of the marine plastic litter problem, said a press note.The guidelines cover what to sample, how to sample it and how to record and assess plastics in the oceans and on the shoreline, including establishing baseline surveys.

As Oceanology International celebrates its 50th Anniversary, Marine Technology Reporter explores half a century of subsea technology development and discovery. Oceanology International Americas runs February 25-27, 2019 in San Diego.When Oceanology launched in 1969 in the seaside resort of Brighton the world was a very different place. For a start, Brighton was home to the mods and rockers, who would square off against each other on the town’s elegant seafront. The British currency included shillings and ha’ pennies and man had yet to step foot on the moon.More crucially…