“Revive Our Ocean” Initiative Launched
the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas program and will assist local communities in their efforts to establish "marine protected areas" in coastal waters.It will focus initially on tackling overfishing and ocean climate impacts in Britain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Mexico, the Philippines and Indonesia."The worst enemy of fishing is overfishing," said Enric Sala, executive director of National Geographic Pristine Seas.Organisers behind the initiative said that establishing marine protected areas would also have economic benefits, noting a study showing that they improved
WMO Documents Spiraling Climate Impacts
. The compounded effect of various shocks, such as intensifying conflict, drought and high domestic food prices drove worsening food crises in 18 countries globally by mid-2024.Tropical cyclones were responsible for many of the highest-impact events of 2024. These included Typhoon Yagi in Viet Nam, the Philippines and southern China.In the United States, Hurricanes Helene and Milton in October both made landfall on the west coast of Florida as major hurricanes, with economic losses of tens of billions of dollars. Over 200 deaths were associated with the exceptional rainfall and flooding from Helene, the
GeoAcoustics Expands Market Reach to Southeast Asia
U.K.-based hydroacoustic technology manufacturer GeoAcoustics has appointed Oceanscan Singapore as its new channel partner for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.The partnership boosts GeoAcoustics' regional presence and ensures that customers in these key maritime markets receive dedicated support and access to its bathymetric sonar, sub-bottom profiler, and side scan sonar products.With established operations in Singapore, Oceanscan, a division of Oceanscan Group, will focus on integrating GeoAcoustics' subsea products in its extensive service and product portfolio for the
HydroWing Inks Deal with PLN for Indonesia’s First Tidal Energy Plant
projects in the Indonesia archipelago,” said Richard Parkinson, CEO of Inyanga Marine Energy Group.“This exciting new project builds on our success in South East Asia. Earlier this year, we were awarded the contract to build South East Asia’s first tidal energy plant at Capul in the Philippines and now we are thrilled to develop the first tidal energy plant in Indonesia at East Nusa Tenggara,” added Jean-Christophe Allo, Commercial Manager at Inyanga Marine Energy Group
China Seizes Underwater “Lighthouses”
devices that had been hidden on the ocean floor and were sending back information that could "pre-set the field for battle," in an article on its official WeChat account, China's most popular social media app.Recent sea and air confrontations in the South China Sea between China and the Philippines over competing territorial claims in the highly strategic waterway have raised the risk of an escalation that could eventually involve the U.S., which is treaty-bound to defend the Philippines if it is attacked.China has also recently staged war games around Taiwan in which it simulated attacks
Teledyne Marine Adds iOne Resources as Philippines Distributor
Marine scientific instrumentation and solutions company Teledyne Marine announced it has tapped iOne Resources Inc. as its new official distributor in the Philippines.iOne Resources Inc. will represent several key Teledyne Marine brands, including RESON, PDS, ODOM Hydrographic, Bowtech, Gavia, Oceanscience, RD Instruments, TSS and BlueView. The company will provide sales and support for the following Teledyne Marine product lines:High-resolution multibeam sonar systems for hydrographic and oceanographic surveys.Data acquisition and post-processing software for a wide range of marine applications.
Australia Conducts First Maintenance of US Nuclear Submarine
nuclear-powered attack submarines and jointly develop with Britain and the United States a new class of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine over the next two decades.The rotations of U.S. nuclear submarines through Australia boosts deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, where China is putting the Philippines under pressure in the disputed waterway of the South China Sea, U.S. lawmaker Michael McCaul said last week.The chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, McCaul was speaking during a visit to Sydney.U.S. submarine maintenance in Australia is a step helping to "better deter aggression
GFCR Greenlights $25M to Scale Up Coral Reef Resilience Efforts
blue economic transition and conservation efforts.Additional market-based solutions to be supported by a coral reef business incubator, include organic waste recycling for coastal farming, aquaculture to support ecosystem restoration, and mooring systems to avoid boat-related reef damage. In the Philippines, hosting the third-largest coral reef area in the world, the GFCR-supported programme led by Blue Alliance Marine Protected Areas has already unlocked catalytic donor and impact investor funding to operationalise a Marine Protected Area (MPA) Impact Loan Facility. A new influx of GFCR support
Ukraine's Drone Success Shapes US Pacific 'Hellscape' Strategy
Taiwan-held islands like Kinmen could also wreak havoc on nearby Chinese military and port infrastructure, analysts suggest.Such a campaign would probably be run in conjunction with more conventional high-tech missiles. Last month the U.S. practiced deploying both drones and land-based missiles to the Philippines, where they could significantly influence any Taiwan conflict or further escalation between China and the Philippines over the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea.'Assault breaker'The phrase "hellscape" was first used by Paparo's predecessor as head of Indo-Pacific
February 2025
