Wendy Laursen
Contributing Writer-
Good Ocean, Good Business
There is an estimated 3.5 million square miles of ocean space suitable for finfish mariculture and about five times that suitable for seaweed production. It’s a potential that is being realized around the world as new projects generate benefits for rural communities, cities and the environment.In Papua New Guinea, the UN Sustainable Development Group is focusing on creating meaningful, sustainable livelihoods for women and youth in Kimbe Bay…
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An Oceanographic Music Mix
Music has an important role to play in climate crisis discourse, offering a sonic pathway to bridge the gap between data, understanding, reflection and action, say researchers from Australia’s Monash University.Their Dark Oceanography initiative integrates climate science with experimental music. Following the pathways of eddies from the Eastern Australian Current through the Southern Ocean and across the globe…
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S-100 has Value Beyond ECDIS
The S-100 framework is a new global standard created by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), in collaboration with other hydrographic offices around the world, that enables the integration of diverse datasets within a single Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS).Mariners will be able to combine various data layers with Electronic Navigational Charts including detailed…
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Anthropocene Markers
For a while, the thin layer of plutonium that encircled the globe after the first nuclear weapons tests was considered the leading geological marker for a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, the time when human impact on the earth became profound.Geologists have been able to measure a distinctive spike in the concentration of plutonium in ocean sediments from the US tests in the Marshall Islands…
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Subsea Warfare Need Not Involve Target Destruction
This week, two unmanned surface vessels (USVs) were launched as part of a trial by Denmark's defense ministry aimed at boosting the nation’s maritime surveillance capabilities.Countries bordering the Baltic Sea are on high alert after a number of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.As defense analyst David R.
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Ice “Memory” to be Protected in Antarctica
The Ice Memory Foundation is preparing for the upcoming transport of ice cores from mountain glaciers to the Ice Memory Sanctuary in Antarctica.The announcement was made as part of the launch of the UN Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034) during the third UN Ocean Conference in Nice on June 8.Preserved in the Ice Memory Sanctuary at Concordia Station, the cores will be available for…
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Upscaling Power Subsea: Cables and Connectors
Cable and connector manufacturers are rushing to meet the growing demand for subsea cables and connectors as renewables upscale, but whether it’s renewables or oil and gas, there’s also growing demand for high-tech subsea communications.The export cables that bring offshore wind power to shore are already so massive that one meter of cable can weigh 300kg. Nexans had previously upscaled its production facilities to cater for increasing demand…
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An Unintentional Iron Fertilization Experiment
The idea of fertilizing the ocean with iron, an element essential for the growth of phytoplankton, is being considered as a climate change mitigation measure - when they die, phytoplankton take carbon into the deep ocean.However, concerns have been raised about large scale intentional iron fertilization that may limit its effectiveness as a carbon dioxide removal strategy. A major one is nutrient robbing…
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The Soundscape Code
Damselfish can make pops, clicks and chirps by grinding their teeth. When seeking a mate, some can make more high-pitched sounds.Another coral reef dweller, the snapping shrimp, makes a sound with its large claw to stun its prey or deter predators. A cavitation bubble is formed when the claw opens and closes rapidly, and the sound is produced when the bubble collapses.It’s sounds like these that can be used as a proxy measure for reef health.
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Artificial Reef or Ecological Trap
There’s not a lot of data on the underwater ecosystems developing on and under floating wind structures; there’s just not that many of these farms installed yet.A recent study by researchers in Scottish set out to analyze what data there is and to hypothesize about what the potential positive and negative effects might be for marine life.It’s potentially important because floating offshore wind is being developed on highly productive shelf seas.
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Fugro’s Blue Eclipse® USV Makes Commercial Debut
This week, Fugro announced the first commercial contract for its Blue Eclipse® uncrewed surface vessel (USV).For the first time in its history, Norway’s MAREANO will use USV technology to acquire seabed mapping data for the Norwegian Hydrographic Service.The Blue Eclipse®, the largest USV in Fugro’s fleet, will survey over 675 square kilometers in the North Sea, with water depths ranging from 90 to 250 meters.Equipped with advanced high-resolution…
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Naturally Quiet
The Arctic’s bowhead whales can live for over 200 years. Imagine what they might hear in that time: screw propellers were only just being used to power ships 200 years ago, and diesel engines appeared some hundred years after that.The underwater radiated noise of shipping has grown globally, but the Arctic is a special place. It has been partially shielded from shipping noise. Sea ice shields and diffuses underwater sound…
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Quantum Sensing Beats GPS-Denied Navigational Challenges
The same error-prone sensitivity that has slowed down the development of quantum computers is being turned into an advantage for GPS-denied navigation.A new quantum sensing technology from Australia-based Q-CTRL has most recently caught the interest of Lockheed Martin and the US Defense Innovation Unit, but the company is already working with the Australian Department of Defence, the UK Royal Navy…
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Machine Learning Versus Statistics
A study published last week used a wave flume to evaluate the effects of waves on small-diameter pipelines. The experimental data was interpreted statistically and using machine learning.The difference between the two is fundamental.As a University of North Dakota blog pointed out recently: In statistics, the main objective is to understand relationships between variables, make predictions, test scientific hypotheses and provide explanations based on data.
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The Biggest Conservation Commitment in the World
At COP 15 in December 2022, over 190 countries adopted a framework for action in support of the Convention on Biological Diversity.The framework includes 23 targets aimed at reversing habitat and species loss. Target 3, known as “30x30”, calls for the effective protection and management of 30% of the world’s terrestrial, inland water and coastal and marine areas by the year 2030.Put simply, says the Nature Conservancy…
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A New Approach to Studying the Air-Sea Flux
A group of over 50 researchers have made the case for a new permanent unmanned surface vessel (USV) network to complement the mature and emerging networks within the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).They have drawn up a blueprint for guiding the global USV community towards an integrated approach to a key ocean observing frontier: the air-sea flux (the interface between the ocean and the atmosphere).Here…
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Whale Song
Who is listening to whale song? Quite a lot of people it turns out, and those who are filtering it out of their data are missing an opportunity for greater understanding of humans, whales and oceans.Earlier this year, a group of linguists, developmental scientists, marine biologists and behavioral ecologists from Griffith University in Australia considered how human babies discover words in speech…
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Subsea Inspection’s New Boss
IBM recently explained why AI orchestration is important: As AI systems grow more advanced, a single AI model or agent can be insufficient for handling complex tasks. Autonomous systems frequently struggle to collaborate because they are built across multiple clouds and applications, leading to siloed operations and inefficiencies.AI agent orchestration bridges these gaps, enabling multiple AI agents…
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Ocean Acidification: Warming’s “Evil Twin”
This week Sonardyne announced the integration of its CONTROS HydroC dissolved CO2 sensor from -4H-JENA engineering into its Origin 600 Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, a development aimed at unlocking new capabilities for ocean acidification research.The combined solution enables precise, real-time monitoring of dissolved carbon dioxide levels alongside detailed current profiling.The oceans act as a partial sink for atmospheric CO2…
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Writing is Thinking
This week, researchers at the University of Florida found that while AI can be a valuable assistant, it falls short of replacing human scientists in many critical areas.The researchers tested how well popular generative AI models including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini could handle various stages of the research process. They put these AI systems through six stages of academic research – ideation…
February 2025
