Crete Opens First Dedicated Diving Park

An EU-funded project has successfully launched Crete’s first dedicated diving park in Stalis to advance the island’s vast potential for sustainable marine tourism.The park was developed by the non-profit Diving Parks of Crete, established by the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and local municipalities.It began in 2014 when a diving enthusiast on the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce board saw Crete’s potential as a top diving spot.

NOAA Taps Woolpert for Chesapeake Bay Watershed Study

Woolpert announced it has been selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to perform hydrographic surveying and collect bathymetric data for hydrodynamic modeling in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The $5.5 million award with a $1.4 million option, funded in part by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is being administered through NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey…

Inverness Schoolchildren Take the Top Prize @ GUH STEM Challenge

Secondary school pupils from across the United Kingdom were in Aberdeen recently for the culmination of an annual nationwide competition organized by Global Underwater Hub. The young students were taking part in the final of the organization’s STEM Challenge competition, which tests the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills of 13 and 14-year-old pupils. The initiative tasks the youngsters to design…

Exail Launches New Compact USBL Positioning System

Navigation, subsea positioning, and imaging solutions provider Exail has launched Gaps M3, a new compact and cost-effective subsea ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system for permanent vessel installation.Gaps M3 is a USBL positioning system with no embedded Inertial Navigation System (INS), making it a cost-effective choice for operators who can rely on existing onboard navigation systems.

Will 2020 be the year for Subsea Mining?

Anyone who has been around the Offshore Oil and Gas or the Marine industries for long has heard of plans for mining various minerals located on or just below the seafloor. In fact, when Howard Hughes built the Glomar Explorer in 1972, the cover story for its true mission – recovering a Soviet submarine - was that the rig would be used to mine manganese nodules from the deep ocean floor. This cover…

MTR100: OceanServer Technology

OceanServer Technology, Inc. is a manufacturer of man-portable Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), with more than 250 AUVs deployed worldwide. The Iver3 AUV is an affordable, COTs vehicle used for general survey, subsurface security work, MCM applications and serves as a research platform for a variety of applications. The Iver3 AUV is a rugged, simple to operate AUV system that incorporates open…

TCarta to Deliver Satellite Derived Bathymetry for 13 Regions

TCarta Marine won a contract to deliver satellite derived bathymetry (SDB) and seafloor classification data for the coastal zones of 13 regions around the world to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) under contract to Maxar Technologies.TCarta will deliver seabed depth and feature maps from high-resolution multispectral Maxar WorldView-2 and WorldView-3 satellite imagery for the 13 regions.

Merrigan Joins Teledyne RD Instruments

Teledyne RD Instruments (RDI) announced it has appointed Dr. Sarah Ruth Merrigan as its new Technical Service and Support Engineer.Merrigan will be based out of RDI headquarters in Poway, Calif. and joins Paul Chua, MMSci, and Chris Rockey on the company's field service team to enhance global support of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP) and Doppler Velocity Logs (DVL).Merrigan has a background in civil engineering…

The Potential of Restoring Marine Habitats

Considering the global initiatives to become nature positive by 2030 [1] and the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals [2], the concepts of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) [3] and Marine Net Gain (MNG) are gaining traction [4,5]. Here we explore the potential of marine restoration in contributing to MNG, carbon sequestration, and port decarbonisation, addressing the critical need for effective marine restoration strategies in the face of climate change…

ABB Power System for World’s Largest Diamond Recovery Vessel

The world's largest, and first custom-built, diamond recovery vessel, to be owned by Debmarine Namibia, will feature an advanced power system by the Swiss company ABB.The vessel is being built by Damen at Damen Shipyards Mangalia on the Black Sea in Romania. The newbuild will be delivered to Debmarine Namibia, a joint venture between the Government of the Republic of Namibia and De Beers Group in 2022.

NOAA to Award $28 Million to Tackle Marine Debris

The Department of Commerce and NOAA announced the availability of up to $28 million across two funding opportunities to address marine debris throughout the coastal U.S., Great Lakes, territories and Freely Associated States. These two Fiscal Year 2024 funding opportunities are part of NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts initiative under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and allow NOAA to support impactful…

Ancient Amphora Discovered by OceanX Handed Over to Malta's Cultural Heritage Authorities

Global exploration nonprofit OceanX said this week it had delivered an ancient amphora to Maltese heritage authorities that was discovered by chance on the Mediterranean seafloor during a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) dive in the summer of 2022."This handover is an example of a non-governmental research entity executing the delivery of a discovered artifact through the appropriate channels according to rules laid out by UNESCO," OceanX said. A handover ceremony was held at Fort St.

Vice Adm. Badhwar Receives Alexander Dalrymple Award

The 2019 Alexander Dalrymple Award has been presented to Vice Admiral Vinay Badhwar, National Hydrographer to the Government of India, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian hydrography and across the wider Indian Ocean region.The Alexander Dalrymple Award was first awarded by the UKHO in 2006 and is named after the first Hydrographer of the Admiralty. Recipients of the award are…

Kraken Achieves Military Standard Certification

Kraken Robotics Inc. subsidiary Kraken Robotic Systems Inc. has completed military standard certification testing of the KATFISH-M, a ruggedized version of Kraken’s KATFISH Towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar Platform.KATFISH-M incorporates a Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) in a compact, lightweight and hydro-dynamically stable towed body. It uses advanced signal processing and algorithms to provide real-time…

Exail Opens New Office in Norway

Eying growth in the Scandinavian region, Exail announced the opening of a new business office in Norway. Located in the Oslo area, this new office is led by Lars Sorfang, who is acting as general manager for Exail AS, as well as regional sales manager for Scandinavia.A former officer for the Norwegian military, Sorfang previously held various business development positions at Kongsberg working on strategic defense programs…

Emerson Launches Roxar Tempest 8.2

Emerson has launched Roxar Tempest 8.2 – the latest version of its reservoir management software, bringing advanced uncertainty analysis tools and increased support to the Big Loop workflow and robust risk analysis and reserves estimates across the seismic to simulation workflow. The announcement also further strengthens Emerson’s end to end Exploration & Production (E&P) software portfolio, helping…

Major Gas Hydrate Mapping Campaign Completed in Japan

Ocean Floor Geophysics Inc. (OFG), in cooperation with Fukada Salvage and Marine Works Co. Ltd. (Fukada), has completed a third high resolution Controlled Source Electromagnetic (CSEM) survey of near surface gas hydrates using the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps) Vulcan system for the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japanese waters.Following the CSEM surveys and 3D inversion models completed in 2014 and 2015…

Converted OSV Enters Service in the UK as an Underwater Surveillance Ship

A converted offshore support vessel has taken on a new life as a dedicated underwater surveillance ship for the U.K.'s Royal Navy.Christened during a ceremony in London on October 10, RFA Proteus will be operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as a launchpad for remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) and a home to a suite of specialist capabilities similar to those found in the offshore oil and gas industry.The ship…

Dual Coil Shooting Full-Azimuth Multiclient Acquisition in GoM

TGS and Schlumberger today announce commencement of the Dual Coil Shooting* multi-vessel full-azimuth acquisition Revolution XII and XIII surveys in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The surveys will cover approximately 7,150 km2 (306 blocks) in the Green Canyon, Atwater Valley and Ewing Bank protraction areas of the Central Gulf of Mexico. The Revolution XIl and XIII surveys will be acquired using the Schlumberger…

ASV Global, BMT Team-up for Autonomous Navigation Project

ASV Global (ASV) is leading a new £1.2 million research project in partnership with BMT to enhance the safety and reliability of autonomous navigation. The project team will use deep learning machine vision systems trained with a combination of simulated and real world data. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, this project will enhance situational awareness enabling the USV to operate in extreme and congested marine environments.