Tag: healthy oceans

A team of scientists and engineers from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is heading to the USA to take part in a high-profile international competition to develop pH sensors to measure changes in the acidity of the ocean. NOC is one of only two organisations representing the UK in the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE, which is offering a total prize fund of (US)$2million for the development of accurate and affordable ocean pH sensors to improve our understanding of ocean acidification. The four-phase competition has attracted major players from the scientific community around the world and there are twenty-three organisations taking part. The NOC team has successfully passed Phase 1 and are travelling to California this month for Phase 2, which involves testing the sensor in a lab.  NOC is well-renowned for developing world-leading oceanographic sensors and the pH sensor it has entered into the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE competition is unique. Very small in size, it is based on a microfluidic design, which requires very small volumes of seawater to generate a reading. It is also being designed as an autonomous system able to operate on a number of oceanographic platforms and down to depths of several thousand ...

The second phase of an ambitious project to gather valuable information on ocean processes and marine life using a fleet of innovative marine robots has just reached its conclusion. Co-ordinated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), the Exploring Ocean Fronts project took place off southwest England and saw the largest deployment of robotic vehicles ever attempted in UK waters. The marine robots, which are powered by a combination of wave, wind and solar power, are controlled by satellite communications and can cover hundreds of kilometres in a single mission. In the latest phase of the project, three unmanned surface vehicles were used to track fish carrying acoustic ‘pingers’ off the Devon coast. About 85 fish, including rays, sole and plaice, were tagged and released by scientists from the Marine Biological Association (MBA), with the aim of understanding how these fish use Marine Protected Areas. The roaming robotic vehicles carried acoustic receivers and worked alongside a series of fixed receivers on the seabed in order to track fish movements inside and outside of the protected sites. Commenting on the fish-tracking trial, Professor David Sims of the MBA said: “The patrolling robots successfully located tagged fish, and also tracked the movements of ...

Scientists direct a remotely operated vehicle deep in the ocean from the mission control room aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer NOAA announced the appointment of 13 members to a new federal Ocean Exploration Advisory Board that will provide guidance to NOAA and the nation on the exploration of our ocean. “This distinguished board will advise NOAA on priority areas for exploration, investments in new technologies, and a strategic plan for greater understanding of our planet’s last frontier,” said NOAA Chief Scientist Richard W. Spinrad, Ph.D., who will serve as liaison to the board for NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, Ph.D. “I congratulate these individuals on their selection, and look forward to working with them to achieve the next generation of ocean exploration.” The new members represent government agencies, private sector leaders, academic institutions and not-for-profit institutions involved in all areas of ocean exploration, from advanced technology to citizen exploration. Detailed biographies for the new members and more about the OEAB can be found online.  Through its Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, NOAA coordinates the only federal program that systematically explores our largely unexplored ocean -- to address national marine environmental, economic and national security priorities, to catalyze new areas of ...

The earth’s climate appears to have been more variable over the past 7,000 years than often thought. This is the conclusion of a new study forthcoming online this week in the U.S. scientific journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS). In the study, scientists from the Potsdam-based Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, and Harvard University show that sea surface temperatures reconstructed from climate archives vary to a much greater extent on long time scales than simulated by climate models. The consequence: either the analysed climate archives supply inaccurate temperature signals, or the tested models underestimate the regional climate fluctuations in the Earth’s recent history. In order to reconstruct climate history, it is necessary to study natural climate archives since, in terms of the Earth’s history, humankind has only very recently begun measuring the planet. There have been instrumental measurements of ocean temperatures for only around 150 years now. For periods prior to that, scientists have to rely on “proxies”, i.e. indicators enabling indirect conclusions to be drawn about climate data from earlier times. Such climate archives generally refer to spatially limited areas and differ in their temporal resolution. They may also include significant ...

Satellite measurements of ocean temperature (illustrated by color) from July 28th to August 4th and the direction of currents (white arrows) help show where radionuclides from Fukushima are transported.  Large scale currents transport water westward across the Pacific.  Upwelling along the west coast of North America in the summertime brings cold deep water to the surface and transports water offshore.  Circles indicate the locations where water samples were collected.  White circles indicate that no cesium-134 was detected.  Blue circles indicate locations were low levels of cesium-134 were detected.  No cesium-134 has yet been detected along the coast, but low levels have been detected offshore. (Image Credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)   Monitoring efforts along the Pacific Coast of the U.S. and Canada have detected the presence of small amounts of radioactivity from the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident 100 miles (150 km) due west of Eureka, California. Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found the trace amounts of telltale radioactive compounds as part of their ongoing monitoring of natural and human sources of radioactivity in the ocean. In the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami off Japan, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant released cesium-134 and other ...

A User Consultation Meeting for the ESA-funded GlobCurrent project will take place at PML (Plymouth Marine Laboratory), with the aim of offering both a preview of early work from the first year of the project and an opportunity to influence future development. As a result of satellite and in-situ observations, combined with high resolution numerical ocean models, the last decade has seen advances in the knowledge of the global ocean surface dynamics. However, the challenge is to accurately quantify the surface current associated with these features. Multi-variable observations from past and presently operating remote sensing satellite sensors provide information on various aspects of the ocean surface currents, but there is an inconsistency in coverage, spatial scales, depth representation and whether, for instance, tides and wind components are included. GlobCurrent aims to provide a synergistic combination of these multiple sensing technologies and their differing depth dependency together with a range of processing methods and tools. Along with a range of keynote talks, this meeting will evaluate preliminary products, clarify user requirements and stimulate discussions of how the system will develop in the future.  Source and Image Credit: PML In the start, I was forthright with you propecia before and after has changed ...

ICS has some specific comments regarding Proposal 6, ‘Offshore Oil and Gas - establishing binding international safety standards and liability’ of the Global Ocean Commission Report ‘From Decline to Recovery: A Rescue Package for the Global Ocean’  ICS has welcomed the publication of the Global Ocean Commission (GOC) proposals on how the governance of the world’s oceans might be improved. ICS shares the GOC’s objective of seeking greater levels of environmental protection, especially with respect to areas of economic activity that currently may not be adequately regulated. ICS notes that the ideas set out by the GOC include the establishment of a stand-alone UN Sustainable Development Goal for the oceans, a properly resourced and mandated UN Special Representative for the Ocean, as well the creation of an independent Global Ocean Accountability Board. ICS itself has strong no views on these proposals, provided that they do not interfere with the effectiveness of IMO as the shipping industry’s global regulator. However, ICS suggests that any views on these matters that might be expressed by IMO, or its Member States’ maritime administrations, should be given very careful consideration. Proposal 2 calls for a new UNCLOS implementing agreement, including the possible establishment of Marine Protected Areas on the ...