Rick van de Wetering Wins 2025 IADC Young Author Award
;stimulate the promotion of new ideas and encourage younger men and women in the dredging industry." The award is granted at industry-leading conferences, with 2025’s winning young authors selected from the proceedings of the 24th WODCON Congress, held from June 23-27, 2025 in San Diego, California.Rick van de Wetering was selected as the Young Author Award winner for his contribution to the paper “A laboratory scale linear rock cutting setup to study cutting forces of blunt chisels.” Dredging hard rock with a cutter head, as used on a cutter suction dredger, is becoming
Greensea IQ to Host First Public Demonstration of Bayonet 350 AUGV
Greensea IQ, a developer of autonomous robotic systems for subsea and nearshore operations, will host the first public demonstration of its Bayonet 350 Autonomous Underwater Ground Vehicle (AUGV) on June 23, 2025, at the Hotel del Coronado’s North Beach in San Diego, California. The demonstration will take place ahead of the 24th World Dredging Congress & Exposition (WODCON XXIV) and is open to invited guests from the commercial dredging and marine construction industries.The Bayonet 350 is designed for operations in the surf and swash zones—areas that are notoriously difficult to
The Ocean Cleanup: Call for Sailors to Take Part in Plastic Research
The Ocean Cleanup is calling on sailors out in the Pacific, anywhere between California and Hawaii this summer, to take part in its research expedition to help map plastic in The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP).This summer, the Dutch non-profit is looking to track the patch, the world’s largest accumulation of floating plastic, using AI technology so they can clean it more efficiently in the future.Sailors willing to fit the AI cameras and use GPS trackers on their leisure trips or during regattas can advance understanding of the patch’s composition to help future cleanup efforts.
Kraken Robotics Appoints Kristin Robertson to Board of Directors
including Orca extra-large unmanned undersea vehicle (XLUUV) for the U.S. Navy and served as Board Chairman for five Boeing subsidiaries, including Liquid Robotics.Prior to Boeing, Kristin was employed by the U.S. Navy as a civilian electronics engineer at the Naval Aviation Depot in San Diego, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California San Diego and her master’s degree in international business from Saint Louis University.“I am honored to join the board of Kraken Robotics, a company at the forefront of ocean technology
NOC Awarded $3.5m to Explore Expanding Ocean Desertification
to monitor diazotroph activity and diversity over an entire year, allowing scientists to gather continuous data, even when they are not at sea.The EXPAND project partners are the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the French Institute of Research for Development, the Universities of California Santa Cruz and of Maryland (USA), India’s Physical Research Laboratory and the University of La Réunion and the University of Cape Town (South Africa).EXPAND is an endorsed project of the Second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2), the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research
Artificial Reef or Ecological Trap
are present, they may only occur close to (within approximately 100m) of the turbines.”The researchers note the many gaps in current understanding and the need for more data.That opportunity for that may be coming. This week, Norway opened a bidding round for three floating wind areas, and California-based Aikido Technologies signed an agreement with Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre) in Haugesund, Norway, to deploy one of the largest floating wind platforms deployed to date.The March issue of Marine Technology Reporter looks at how small and agile underwater robots can, among other functions
Ocean Aero to Continuously Monitor the Port of Gulfport Autonomously
abroad. Large-scale oil and gas organizations also rely on Ocean Aero’s capabilities to scan the ocean floor for pipeline damage and other anomalies. The Port of Gulfport welcomed Ocean Aero in January of 2022 as the company relocated its manufacturing facility and headquarters from California to Mississippi
2025 Voluntary Vessel Speed Reduction Season in California Commences May 1st
programs will begin on May 1 and conclude on December 31. BWBS and NOAA strongly recommend that all vessels 300 gross tons or larger reduce speeds to 10 knots or less in the VSR zones, identical for both programs, during this timeframe. Please reference the included map for the expanded Southern California zone in the new Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.The previous 2024 BWBS season was greatly successful with the highest participation and cooperation levels since the inception of the program. PMSA thanks its members for continuing to demonstrate that voluntary VSR programs can be a success
Trump Order Fast Tracks Subsea Mining
commercial nodule project, responsibly and economically," said Gerard Barron, CEO of the company, which aims to extract nodules from a vast plain of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.Beyond The Metals Company, others eyeing deep-sea mining include California-based Impossible Metals, Russia's JSC Yuzhmorgeologiya, Blue Minerals Jamaica, China Minmetals, and Kiribati's Marawa Research and Exploration.U.S. access to critical minerals - especially those produced by Chinese companies - has dwindled in recent months as Beijing has limited exports
February 2025
