U.S. Revives Cold War Submarine Spy Program to Counter China
has not previously been reported. It involves modernizing America’s existing network of underwater acoustic spy cables and retrofitting a fleet of surveillance ships with cutting-edge sensors and subsea microphones, moves aimed at boosting the military’s ability to spy on its foes. The United States has agreed to sell Australia similar technology to help bolster allied defenses in the Pacific region.The most innovative change in the Navy’s ocean reconnaissance system is an investment in new technologies to miniaturize and globalize traditional maritime surveillance tools. The original
As Nations Pledge to Create Ocean Preserves, How Do Those Promises Add Up?
pledging to protect swaths of ocean within their territories. To see how these commitments added up, my colleagues and I recently evaluated ocean conservation commitments announced from 2014 through 2019 at the yearly Our Ocean Conferences – high-level international meetings initiated by the U.S. State Department. (More recent meetings were canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic.)A number of countries have made ambitious commitments. At the Our Ocean Conferences from 2014 through 2019, 62 countries pledged to protect areas of their ocean. Fourteen nations, including the Seychelles and Chile, committed
The Value of Friends in “High-Latitude” Places
21-year old ship, one of only two ice-breakers owned by the U.S., returned to port for repair.So began an international effort to save irreplaceable data that would contribute to invaluable research on the rapidly changing Arctic Ocean. On both sides of the Atlantic, scientists, Coast Guard personnel, State Department employees, and staff at ONR HQ in Washington and ONR Global in London worked feverishly to find a solution. Drs. Robert Headrick and Elena McCarthy, who fund Norwegian oceanographic research on behalf of ONR and ONR Global, respectively, along with the Norwegian PI, Dr. Hanne Sagen, strategized
US Ramps Up Fight Against Illegal Fishing
(IUU) fishing across borders and promote sustainable fisheries abroad, as the U.S. ramps up its fight against practices that threaten global food security, damage economies and risk the sustainability of fisheries and marine ecosystems.This partnership builds on NOAA's larger work with the U.S. State Department and U.S. Coast Guard under the Maritime SAFE Act, which was signed into law last year.Through this agreement, the two agencies plan to build upon each other's respective programs, strategies and investments to support developing countries as they strengthen their own assessment, monitoring
Chinese Seismic Vessel Seen Moving Near Malaysia Amid Rising South China Sea Tensions
, shipping data showed Thursday, amid accusations that China is using the pandemic to assert its presence in the South China Sea.The Haiyang Dizhi 8 was spotted off Vietnam this week, returning after being closely tracked last year in the resource-rich waters, a potential global flashpoint as the United States challenges China's sweeping maritime claims.The ship appeared to have started a survey in waters 352 kilometers (218 miles) off the coasts of Brunei and Malaysia on Thursday, according to data from Marine Traffic, a website that tracks shipping.That appeared to be just north of Malaysia'
Trump Administration Grants License for Taiwan Submarine Project
the marketing license required for American manufacturers to sell technology to Taiwan that would allow for building domestic submarines, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported on Saturday.The news agency said Taiwan Ministry of National Defense Chen Chung-chi confirmed that the U.S. Department of State had agreed to grant the license needed to sell the technology to Taiwan that it would need to build its own submarine.The U.S. State Department declined to confirm the details of the news report.A State Department official said the agency continued to review Taiwan’s defense needs and referred
Young American Sailors Call for Action on Marine Pollution
spent much of last year in the most remote waters of the globe during the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race - and observed an eye-opening amount of debris littering the ocean all over the planet. Enright, 32, led a discussion on the topic in front of representatives from the United Nations, the US State Department and the Swedish Embassy at Volvo Group's Ocean Summit on Marine Debris in Newport, USA and Gothenburg, Sweden in 2015. And now Enright and Towill, currently preparing their next round-the-world challenge, are eager to continue their call to action and speak at events throughout the
Liquid Robotics to Help Fight Illegal Fishing
Using ocean data collected by fleets of Wave Gliders, teams of coders will compete to create new ways to fight illegal fishing Liquid Robotics said it will provide support for the U.S. State Department’s third annual Fishackathon 2016, an event bringing together volunteer coders, technologists and scientists around the globe to help create new applications and tools to thwart the global epidemic of illegal and unregulated fishing. In support of this event, Liquid Robotics will provide historical and real-time ocean data collected by the Wave Glider, an unmanned surface vehicle.
New Ships Join the US Research Fleet
costs, vessel scheduling is coordinated by the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) with the UNOLS vessel operators as part the U.S. ARF. For cruises pursuing science objectives in foreign EEZs, vessel operators coordinate cruise schedules and science objectives with the US State Department, which coordinates these requirements with foreign ministries.” “The assignment of Naval auxiliaries to academic institutions for oceanographic research purposes traces back to the post-WW II era when surplus Navy support vessels were donated to oceanographic institutions, and
February 2024
