Credit: JAMSTEC [De S. Chiba]
The Messina Strait, a submarine bridge separating the island of Sicily from the Italian Peninsula, is the area with the largest marine litter density worldwide -more than a million objects per square kilometre in some parts-, as reported in a new review paper published in the journal
Environmental Research Letters.
Also, over the next thirty years, the volume of rubbish in the sea could surpass three billion metric tons (Mt), as cited in the study, whose corresponding authors are the experts Miquel Canals, from the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona, and Georg Hanke from the European Commission s Joint Research Centre (JRC), where scientists carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policies.
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Researchers from MBARI, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, after years of development and testing, have successfully demonstrated that a fleet of autonomous robots can track and study a moving microbial community in an open-ocean eddy.
Researchers from MBARI, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, after years of development and testing, have successfully demonstrated that a fleet of autonomous robots can track and study a moving microbial community in an open-ocean eddy. The results of this research effort were recently published in Science Robotics.
Saildrone Launches 72-foot Surveyor
(Photo: Saildrone)
Saildrone has launched the Saildrone Surveyor, a new 72-foot uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) equipped for high-resolution mapping of the ocean seafloor.
The Surveyor carries a sophisticated array of acoustic instruments for both shallow and deep-water ocean mapping; the Kongsberg EM 304 multibeam echo sounder is capable of mapping the seafloor down to 7,000 meters below the surface. The Surveyor also carries two state-of-the-art Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs), the Teledyne Pinnacle 45 kHz ADCP and the Simrad EC150-3C ADCP, to measure ocean currents and understand what is in the water column. The Surveyor is also equipped with the Simrad EK80 echo sounder for fish stock assessments.
Mapping the ocean’s floor is a surprisingly vital enterprise, which helps with a range of activities including shipping, coastal protection, and deep-sea resource gathering. It’s also a very costly and time-consuming activity, which can be demanding and dangerous for those involved. Saildrone is a startup focused on building out autonomous exploratory vessels that can do […]
The deep sea discoveries of 2020 are stunning
Perhaps the longest animal ever recorded: An estimated 150-foot-long siphonophore.
Image: Schmidt Ocean Institute
2020-12-23 15:18:27 UTC
This spring, over 2,000 feet down in the Indian Ocean, a robot exploring a canyon happened upon a fantastical, loosely coiled creature. The siphonophore, found suspended in the water, might be the longest animal ever discovered. It s well over 150 feet in length.
The discovery, made by scientists aboard the R/V Falkor, a vessel operated by the marine research organization the Schmidt Ocean Institute, was one of many unique sightings in, or newly published research about, the deep sea this year. The worst pandemic in a century may have canceled many marine expeditions, but discoveries in the ocean deep â abetted by robotic explorers â continued apace in 2020.Â