oceanlove

  Rare look at animals in the ocean twilight zone The ocean is so vast that it can be hard for scientists to find the species they want to study. That’s why two ocean robots are better than one for capturing these rarely-seen glimpses of twilight zone animals! During an October 2023 Nautilus Live expedition to the Geologist Seamounts – about 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Hawai’i’s Big Island – researchers used the University of New Hampshire’s uncrewed surface vessel DriX to find the best place to deploy WHOI’s hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) Mesobot – right into dense patches of marine life! Because these animals migrate between surface waters at night and deeper regions during the day, they captured this footage at the relatively shallow depth of 328 feet (100 meters).   It’s all part of a co-robotics experiment aboard the Ocean Exploration Trust’s E/V Nautilus, funded by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI) to advance th...

Exploring shallow lagoons with USV mapping technology   Autonomous and uncrewed mapping of the unique ecosystem of Gialova Lagoon By   George Papatheodorou ,  Maria Geraga ,  Elias Fakiris ,  Maria Papakonstantinou ,  Nikos Mavrommatis   •   June 20, 2023 Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are increasingly being used for the mapping and management of shallow-water environments such as lagoons, rivers and estuaries, due to their economic and ecological benefits. The Gialova Lagoon wetland in south-west Peloponnesus, Greece, is particularly difficult to navigate using crewed vessels and was therefore studied using a USV to identify the bathymetry, morphology and submerged aquatic vegetation coverage of the lagoon’s floor. The USV platform was equipped with various devices, including sidescan sonars, single- and multibeam echosounders, environmental sensors and waterproof cameras. The USV successfully navigated the shallow waters of the lagoon and a gr...

Unraveling the environmental impact of North Sea shipwrecks   The haunting presence of shipwrecks such as the   John Mahn   in the North Sea offers glimpses into our history. These maritime time capsules, while fostering vibrant ecosystems, raise concerns about pollution and leakage. However, thanks to the groundbreaking North Sea Wrecks project, the hidden dangers and self-cleaning properties of these enigmatic relics are being uncovered. Are we truly facing a toxic war legacy, or are our worries unfounded?  Testerep , a magazine of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), embarked on an investigative journey to shed light on this. There are approximately 290 shipwrecks in the Belgian part of the North Sea alone, and more than 1,000 in the entire North Sea. These wrecks, remnants of the world wars, have long been a mystery in terms of their environmental impact and potential for toxic substance release. However, the North Sea Wrecks project aimed to change that, and re...

Development of digital bathymetric models from hydroacoustic and photogrammetric data   Geoinformatic techniques to combine bathymetric data for shallow and ultra-shallow waters By   Jacek Łubczonek ,  Witold Kazimierski ,  Grzegorz Zaniewicz   •   June 7, 2022 Unmanned vehicles, both surface and airborne, are increasingly being used for hydrographic surveying. While the technology of data acquisition using these platforms is generally known, the fusion of this data is still the subject of much research, and the methods applied often depend on the sensors used and the properties of the survey area. This study presents a method for fusing data acquired using unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) measurement platforms to develop a digital bathymetric model. The case analysed concerns shallow water and ultra-shallow water up to the boundary with the shoreline. Approaches for combining bathymetric data Various methods are currently us...