The Rise of the Aquanaut
The feeling of awe and planetary connection experienced by astronauts observing Earth from low space orbit is known as the “overview effect,” a term coined by Frank White, the author of numerous books on space exploration and science. Now researchers from Northeastern University have documented a similar cognitive shift among aquanauts, people who live and work under the sea. They call it the “underview effect.”Sharing that sense of wonder and kinship with nature with the public could be key to helping understand and conserve the ocean environment, according to the research
AquaTitans Joins Scottish Research Scheme
Subsea engineering company and ocean innovator AquaTitans is the latest business to sign up to the Scottish Association for Marine Science’s (SAMS) Ocean Changemakers scheme.The corporate membership scheme, which has a growing list of companies representing aquaculture to utilities, supports SAMS, as an ocean research charity, in advancing its understanding of marine environments.This newest sign-up reflects AquaTitans’ commitment to making a positive impact to sustainable oceans, by supporting a charity that is both geographically close and aligned with its own vision that understanding
New Project to Assess Resilience of Mesophotic Coral Reefs
employ a number of methods to assess their vulnerability to climate change.In addition to assessing the threats they face, the project will also seek to inform ways the reefs can be protected now and in the future.The project starts in February 2026, and is being led by experts in marine biology and oceanography from the University of Plymouth, with a core team also including experts in coral reef biodiversity from Imperial College London and specialists in numerical modelling at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML). They are being supported by a grant of £3.7million from the Natural Environment Research
EU Seeks Feedback on Ocean Observation Initiative
The European Commission has launched a call for evidence to shape the European Ocean Observation Initiative, one of the cornerstones of the European Ocean Pact.The initiative will improve access to actionable marine knowledge for everyone who relies on the ocean and aims to make Europe a global leader in ocean observation and the development of related technologies. The call for evidence will be open until February 27, 2026, with the Commission seeking a wide range of contributions from stakeholders, experts and citizens. The feedback collected will feed into the development of the Ocean
Entanglement Acquires Applied Ocean Sciences
Applied Ocean Sciences will operate as an Entanglement company, strengthening the firm’s portfolio of applied intelligence platforms across environmental, maritime, and dual-use domains.Applied Ocean Sciences’ work spans environmental science and conservation, atmospheric science, physical oceanography, biological oceanography, and maritime and defense applications. These capabilities support complex sensing, modeling, and decision-making challenges across ocean, atmosphere, and increasingly space-enabled Earth observation systems.AOS has a long history of work with government agencies and research
NOAA and Sofar Advance Weather Forecasting
NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) and Sofar Ocean have partnered to build modeling systems that advance marine weather forecasting.GFDL and Sofar’s three-year cooperation, which began in late 2024, combines parallel efforts at each organization to produce a coupled atmosphere-wave-ocean model that improves the accuracy of global marine weather forecasts and regional extreme weather scenarios.Scientists at NOAA and Sofar are already leveraging preliminary versions of the coupled model to produce more accurate ocean weather forecasts and improve safety at sea for coastal
USV Provides Near Real-Time Deep Ocean Current Observations
the Loop Current System.The project was completed during Fall 2025 and funded by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Gulf Research Program. “Sustained deep-ocean measurements remain rare despite their importance,” says Randy Watts, Professor of Oceanography, URI. “This project demonstrates how commercially available instruments and uncrewed vehicles can deliver science-ready data in strong current systems – overcoming the dual challenges of station-keeping where most USVs fail and cost-effective deployment without expensive research vessels
Subsea Technology Helps Coral Larvae Find Home
This week, researchers at Australia’s Southern Cross University and CSIRO gave hope that millions of coral larvae on the Great Barrier Reef can help replenish degraded reefs thanks to the development of a “larval seedbox.”Results from the first trial have found coral settlement to be up to 56 times higher across thousands of square meters of reef. Large scale operation is achievable as tens of millions of larvae can be collected during the annual mass coral spawning that occurs each November in the Great Barrier Reef.The development comes as global warming is crossing dangerous
Larval Seedbox Boosts Coral Restoration
Millions of coral larvae on the Great Barrier Reef have an increased chance of replenishing degraded reefs thanks to the ‘larval seedbox’ - a coral restoration technology developed by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, with Southern Cross University.Results from the first trial of larval seedboxes have found coral settlement to be up to 56 times higher across thousands of square meters of reef.The trial was conducted at Lizard Island in 2024 and shows strong promise for use of seedboxes in scaling up coral restoration.Dr Christopher Doropoulos, Senior Research Scientist at
December 2025
