NOAA: New Oceaneye Partnership Brings Expansion to Microplastics Database. “NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and non-profit organization Oceaneye have created a partnership to improve and expand the Marine Microplastics database. The objective of this partnership is to not only expand the database, but to also establish a diverse international community of public users.”
Nature: FathomNet: A global image database for enabling artificial intelligence in the ocean. “Recent advances in machine learning enables fast, sophisticated analysis of visual data, but have had limited success in the ocean due to lack of data standardization, insufficient formatting, and demand for large, labeled datasets. To address this need, we built FathomNet, an open-source image database that standardizes and aggregates expertly curated labeled data.”
Engadget: Almost a quarter of the ocean floor is now mapped. “Roughly 25 percent (23.4 percent to be exact) of the Earth’s sea floor has been mapped, thanks to an international initiative known as Seabed 2030. Relying largely on voluntary contributions of bathymetric data (or ocean topography) by governments, companies and research institutions, the project is part of a larger UN-led initiative called The Ocean Decade.”
British Library: One-Fifth of the World’s Surface. “One-Fifth of the Earth’s Surface is a digital audio-visual, multimedia web experience by artists Hakeem Adam and Maxwell Mutanda. Commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices and York Mediale, the work is, as the title suggests, an exploration of the ‘power of water as a dynamic and fluid archive’ with the Atlantic Ocean its main subject.”
Maine Public Radio: In Fight Over Right Whales And Lobster Fishery, All Sides Want To Know More About Whale Activity Off Maine. “Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration created a new website that maps almost two decades of work to detect whales off the east coast, via ‘passive acoustic’ recorders set on buoys, on submerged platforms, and on underwater gliders that can zig and zag around the Gulf of Maine for months at a time.”
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Major Ocean-Observing Satellite Starts Providing Science Data. “After six months of check-out and calibration in orbit, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite will make its first two data streams available to the public on June 22. It launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Nov. 21, 2020, and is a U.S.-European collaboration to measure sea surface height and other key ocean features, such as ocean surface wind speed and wave height.”
Guam Ecosystems Collaboratorium for Corals and Oceans Biorepository: Biorepository receives coral collection from UOG professor emeritus. “The Guam EPSCoR Guam Ecosystems Collaboratorium (GEC) Biorepository is welcoming its largest addition yet – a private collection of around 30,000 coral specimens from University of Guam Professor Emeritus of Marine Biology Richard Randall. The collection includes specimens from Guam and other places throughout the Pacific and reflects the 56 years since Randall joined the UOG Marine Laboratory, which he spent researching coral reef biology and geology.”
CNET: Preserving the future of our oceans through underwater mapping. “Schmidt scientists sail the world on a research vessel called the Falkor, equipped with a wealth of scientific gear, including echosounders, a blimp for aerial observations, and a remotely operated vehicle named SuBastian. Capable of diving as deep as 4,500 meters, SuBastian features several high-definition video cameras and is designed to be modular, which lets operators customize the proprietary ROV for each mission.”
Commonwealth of Nations: New funding database for ocean action. “The Commonwealth Secretariat has launched an online database to help member countries be aware of and access more than US$170 million of international funding available for ocean-related projects. Accompanying this new web tool is a handbook containing valuable guidance on how to navigate the database, as well as match and pitch projects to the most suitable funders.”
NOAA: NOAA Launches First National Rip Current Forecast Model. “For the first time, NOAA is launching a national rip current forecast model, aimed at saving lives of beach-goers around the country. This new model can predict the hourly probability of rip currents along U.S. beaches up to six days out.”
World Economic Forum: This innovative project fuses journalism and music to highlight lawlessness at sea. ” All of that time spent at sea allowed me to build an audio library of field recordings. It featured a variety of textured and rhythmic sounds like machine-gun fire off the coast of Somalia and chanting captive deckhands on the South China Sea. Using the sound archive and inspired by the reporting, over 400 artists from more than 60 countries are producing EPs in their own interpretive musical styles, be it electronic, ambient, classical or hip-hop. Many artists also used the reported footage to make their own videos tied to their song, including Louis Futon, Roger Molls, and De Osos.” This is really good. Major timesink.
NOAA: The Global Drifter Program Launches a New Interactive Map Tool. “Drifters are deployed in the global ocean to measure sea surface temperature and ocean currents, but most are also equipped to measure other variables. As the drifter moves around, guided by currents, measurements of atmospheric pressure, winds, wave spectra, and salinity can also be taken. These data are collected by sensors in the drifter and transmitted to overhead satellites. Tracking the location of drifters over time allows scientists to build a profile of ocean currents.”
Business News Australia: Melbourne startup unveils ocean floor ‘Street View’ submarine. “Emerging Melbourne tech startup UAM Tec (Underwater Autonomous Mapping Technology) has revealed its first product, dubbed Google Maps Street View for the ocean floor…. The submarine will generate publicly accessible maps of the ocean floor which UAM Tec hope can be used for research purposes.”
Phys .org: Scientists create largest collection of coral reef maps ever made . “The high-resolution coral reef maps made for this study can be found on the World Reef Map, an interactive coral reef atlas where users can explore all of the coral reefs and shallow water marine habitats mapped on the Global Reef Expedition. Although they by no means cover every reef worldwide, this new atlas covers a meaningful portion of key reef provinces around the world.”
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management: New OceanReports Tool Brings Ocean Data to Your Fingertips . “U.S. ocean waters comprise nearly four million square miles and are one of the largest Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in the world. Now, when you outline any area in the U.S. EEZ using the OceanReports app, you can get detailed information about habitats and species, industries at work, potential hazards such as undersea cables or shipwrecks, economic value of ocean commerce, and detailed oceanographic information.”
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