{"id":172906,"date":"2019-12-31T14:19:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T14:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/?p=172906"},"modified":"2019-12-31T14:19:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T14:19:25","slug":"the-future-of-seabed-2030-from-vision-to-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/the-future-of-seabed-2030-from-vision-to-action\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Seabed 2030: From Vision to Action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As 2019 comes to a close, we reflect not only on our accomplishments throughout the year, but also the exciting challenges that lie ahead, particularly in the field of hydrography<\/a>. In late October 2019, Rear Adm. Shep Smith, director of NOAA\u2019s Office of Coast Survey and chair of the International Hydrographic Organization Council, delivered the keynote address at the Seabed 2030<\/a> Summit at the Royal Society in London, encouraging participation in the grand global challenge to map the world\u2019s seafloor by the year 2030. The following is a video and transcript of this presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/video> <\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n

Video transcript:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

A whole generation of ocean\nscientists, explorers and leaders have repeatedly lamented that we know more\nabout the moon \u2014 or even Mars \u2014 than we know about our own oceans.  It has become clich\u00e9 in our circles. Today we\nare challenged to reverse this long-standing lament.   <\/p>\n\n\n

We now have the tools and technologies to understand the geography and contours of the\nocean, its physics, and the life it supports. We can use this understanding to\ninform critical decisions \u2014 locally, nationally, and globally.<\/p>\n\n\n

If we are going to sustainably use more than 70 percent of the planet,\nand if we are going to be able to predict how the oceans will affect the weather,\nclimate, and coasts, we need to build a better map of the ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n

The pressure on the ocean is greater today than at any time in\nhistory. There are historic levels of fishing, offshore wind energy farms are\nbeing built around the world, seabed minerals are being mined to supplement\nthose available on land, and maritime commerce is thriving. At the same time, climate change,\nocean acidification and marine pollution are threatening the very functioning\nof the ocean and the ecosystems it sustains. The ocean represents food\nsecurity, climate moderation, and the energy and chemical buffer for the\natmosphere. It is what makes this planet habitable. <\/p>\n\n\n

Early in this century, Admiral\nJames Watkins, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, put it\nquite succinctly, \u201cPeople care about what they know about; and people don\u2019t\nknow enough about our oceans.\u201d Now is the time.<\/p>\n\n\n

Personally, I\u2019m all in. I\u2019m all\nin because we need to better understand this \u201cinner space\u201d if we are to going\nto fulfill our ocean stewardship responsibilities. I\u2019m all in because this\nchallenge is difficult, bold, and important.  I\u2019m all\nin because the changing oceans drive changing climate. I\u2019m all in because the ocean both supports and\nthreatens the world\u2019s coastal communities. Understanding the ocean is\nthe key for humans to thrive on earth. <\/p>\n\n\n

The ocean and me, we go way back. I was raised on the rugged coast of\nMaine and got my sealegs early. I spent much of my spare time \u201csimply messing\nabout in boats.\u201d My family had a sailboat that I used to explore the coast from\nNantucket to Halifax.  <\/p>\n\n\n

I found navigation fascinating and spent hours poring over charts,\nlearning position fixing, finding places to go, planning routes, and imagining\nfuture trips. As a teenager, I embarked with friends on ocean adventures each\nsummer, sleeping aboard a 21-foot sailboat and exploring the islands off the\ncoast.  <\/p>\n\n\n

Looking at the charts, I found myself amazed that waters were charted\nat such a level of detail. I was impressed with the skill and expertise of the\nchart makers. I also found myself asking, \u201cWhen the chart says it is 70 feet\ndeep, what does that mean? Just at that spot? What about the area between the\nsoundings? How did they measure it?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n

I soon discovered that the charted soundings were often in neat little\nlines, which led me to understand that the ocean was not as well mapped as I\nhad thought. I knew from my dinghy time, SCUBA diving, and an occasional\ngrounding that there is a lot more detail to the seabed than can be depicted on\nthe charts.<\/p>\n\n\n

Several journeys of personal discovery later, I found myself as a\nnewly commissioned Ensign with NOAA. My first assignment was to a ship\nsurveying the coastal waters of Alaska in areas where the chart was completely\nwhite, no recorded soundings at all. We were using what was then\nstate-of-the-art paper-recording echo sounders and differential GPS systems,\nwhich automatically drew a sounding on a boat sheet with a pen plotter.  <\/p>\n\n\n

Since then, I have been witness and participant in several dramatic\nleaps in technology, in sonar capabilities, positioning, motion sensing, data\nprocessing, and visualization. We can now \u201csee\u201d the fine details of the\nseafloor, rocky outcrops on a muddy bottom, shipwrecks, sand waves, coral\nreefs, iceberg grounding grooves, scours from trawling gear, derelict fishing\ntraps, and even gas seeps. By further analyzing the sonar echo from the seafloor,\nwe can even map seabed composition. We have come a long way. <\/p>\n\n\n

People have been working to map the ocean since the first boats went\nover the horizon. Captains traded soundings with each other in a way that today\nwe would call crowdsourcing, and we very slowly built navigation maps, charts,\nof the ocean. These charts enabled the first wave of globalization in the 17th\nto 19th centuries. It was not until 1903, when Prince Albert I of Monaco\norganized an international project called GEBCO, General Bathymetric Chart of\nthe Ocean, that we systematically began to assemble these measurements for\nscience. GEBCO assembled a global network of hydrographic offices and\nscientists to assemble as many depth measurements as possible and create a\nseries of bathymetry maps that spanned the globe. Over the past century, this\nproject contributed to the discovery of mid ocean ridges and to unlocking the\nsecrets of plate tectonics.<\/p>\n\n\n

Ever since Bruce Heezen and Marie\nTharp produced their first global ocean map in 1977, we have grown accustomed\nto seeing the global seafloor apparently completely mapped. Heezen and Tharp\ntook a relatively few measurements and used them to imagine a whole seabed that\nwas consistent with geologic processes. But, most of this map is art, not science.\nIn 1997, Sandwell and Smith used global gravity anomalies and sparse soundings\nto infer general global bathymetry. This further improved our understanding of\nthe seabed, but it is neither accurate enough, nor high enough resolution to\nmeet our needs. There is no substitute for actually measuring the depth\ndirectly.<\/p>\n\n\n

Our world\u2019s ocean covers 72\npercent of our planet but only 15 percent of it is directly measured to a\nresolution that supports modern science and societal needs. <\/p>\n\n\n

In 2016, the Nippon Foundation convened a meeting of over one hundred\nof the world\u2019s top bathymetric practitioners, including the alumni of their\nGEBCO Scholars Program. The Foundation challenged to us to map the world\u2019s\noceans by 2030, and kicked off a surge of effort now known as Seabed 2030.  <\/p>\n\n\n

Over hundreds of years, we had managed to map only a few percent of\nthe ocean, and now we are going to try to finish in just over a decade? Pretty\nbold. We would not have challenged ourselves to do this at the beginning of my\ncareer.   <\/p>\n\n\n

But now this is possible. We have three things we didn\u2019t have in the\n90s.  We are in the midst of rapid growth\nin enabling technology. We have a renewed interest in the oceans, and a\nwillingness to invest in this enterprise. Most importantly, we have a grand\ncoalition, across the globe, across government, academia, and the private\nsector.  <\/p>\n\n\n

This effort is essential. Here\u2019s why. Many of our fundamental questions about the ocean remain\nunanswered. How is glacial ice melt affecting the global ocean\ncirculation? How many species exist in the ocean? How much history is under the\nwater that we have not discovered? The current answer to all of these is…we\ndon\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n

Seabed 2030\nis part of our shared vision to conserve and sustainably use the oceans for\nthis and future generations. It will help us provide answers to these and many\nmore questions that society needs to know. What we do NOT know about our ocean,\ncan hurt us. Fifteen percent is simply not enough and that is why we are\nhere.   <\/p>\n\n\n

Many of the world\u2019s top scientists are engaged in understanding the\nearth system, in order to predict natural processes \u2014 from tomorrow\u2019s weather\nto decades-long changes in the climate. The ocean dominates the earth system. The\nheat capacity of the ocean is around 1000 times that of the atmosphere. Major\nocean currents redistribute this heat around the earth. The Gulf Stream alone\nis 100 times larger than all the rivers on earth combined. When we talk about\nglobal warming, we are mostly talking about ocean warming. Climate change is\nocean change. The same carbon that acts as a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere\ncauses ocean acidification.  <\/p>\n\n\n

Global ocean circulation cannot be fully understood without better\nbathymetry.  At the coarse scale, this is\nobvious \u2014 water flows where there is water, not where there is dirt. For bottom\ncurrents and those in shallow water, internal waves and currents interact with\nthe seafloor, creating turbulence and upwelling, resulting in mixing between\nocean layers. This disperses heat and carbon through the ocean. In order to\nbetter model these processes, we must have finer scale bathymetry.  <\/s><\/p>\n\n\n

Local bathymetry can also have a critical impact on circulation and\nclimate. In eastern Greenland, the sea water is in direct contact with the ice\nsheet. The rate of ice melt depends on the temperature of the water, and the\nrate of local circulation. An offshore bathymetric ridge constrains this\ncirculation. Since we don\u2019t\nknow the bathymetry of the ridge, we cannot predict how fast the ice will melt.\n<\/p>\n\n\n

Along the highly-populated coasts of the world, we model seawater\nmovement to predict storm surges, tsunami runup, and harmful algal blooms.\nThese models require high-resolution bathymetry to accurately predict these\nlife-threatening events with enough accuracy to protect our coastal\npopulations. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Mapping the detailed features of the seafloor also paves the way for\ndiscovery of unique and important seabed environments. Over the last 30 years,\nscientists discovered hydrothermal vents and entire ecosystems in areas\npreviously thought to be incompatible with life. We had thought we understood\nthe parameters of life until we were challenged by these unique observations.\nWhat other fundamentally new forms of life could be discovered that might help\nus understand our planet, or perhaps to recognize life on other planets?<\/p>\n\n\n

Scientists are discovering new species every year in newly mapped\nhabitats we did not know existed. Last year, NOAA discovered an 85-mile track\nof deep-sea coral reef. Known as \u201cMillion\u2019s Mound,\u201d it is the largest track of\ndeep sea coral ever discovered in U.S. waters. \n<\/p>\n\n\n

A large, shallow-water sponge\nfound in the Caribbean was first studied in the 1950s. Scientists isolated two\nchemicals which\nwere used as models for the development of the HIV drug AZT, and a drug to treat leukemia. Among the millions of undiscovered marine\nspecies, what if just one or two of these species could be the lynchpin to\ncuring diseases afflicting humanity?  Better bathymetry will focus our\nattention on the unique ecosystems that we can further explore to find these\nnew lifeforms. <\/p>\n\n\n

We have all witnessed the\nincredible advances in technology in our lifetimes, and we have the opportunity\nto apply these technologies to meet the mission of mapping the global oceans. <\/p>\n\n\n

Rapidly growing technology enterprises in\nother sectors are doing things better all the time.  Just compare the information we have on land\nto what we had 20 years ago. Or what has been developed in support of space\nexploration or to build a self-driving car. The engineers and entrepreneurs\ninvolved in Google, NASA and Tesla didn\u2019t just use existing  technology, they inspired new innovation to\nachieve the quantum shift they envisioned. \n<\/p>\n\n\n

For this project, we must have faith in our\nability to make similar technological advances as we go along. We can\u2019t wait until\nwe have it all worked out. It is the very experience of progress and failure\nthat will inspire our next round of innovation. That said, we are confident we\ncan drive down costs because we are already on the precipice of new\nbreakthroughs in ocean mapping technology. \n<\/p>\n\n\n

We are today doing final tests on several\ndifferent types revolutionary unmanned survey vessels that could triple the\nproductivity of our existing survey ships, and survey independently in remote\nareas for months at a time.  We are\nlikewise automating bathymetric quality control and processing using artificial\nintelligence so that it can happen in near real time, reducing risk and\nspeeding up data delivery. The next generation of satellites for communications\nwill support remote control and monitoring of surveys at sea. <\/s><\/p>\n\n\n

If we include the expected\nefficiencies of these advances, we can now begin to estimate a total project\ncost that is in line with the value of the resulting seabed maps. While it is tempting to think about a single massive mapping campaign organized\nand funded centrally, this is unlikely to happen, and would likely run into\nproblems when operating in national waters. \nInstead, we need to build a grand coalition.  All parts of this coalition need to feel\ninvested in the project, be able to point to their contribution, and share in\nthe recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n

We can start by encouraging access to existing data.  There is an enormous amount of bathymetry\nthat has already been collected by governments, private companies, and\nacademia. Enough data that, if accessible, might double the existing 15 percent\nmapped figure. <\/p>\n\n\n

I recognize that there are commercial interests, national security\nconcerns, and scholarly prerogative associated with some data sets. However, we\nhave already seen some examples where downsampling or delaying the availability\nof data sets can preserve the data holder\u2019s interests while meeting the\nscientific need for bathymetry.  <\/p>\n\n\n

Last year, Olex, a crowdsource bathymetry aggregator for the\ncommercial fishing industry, has donated their data holdings to GEBCO at a\nreduced resolution. This single contribution represented a significant portion\nof the growth in data holdings in the sub-Arctic. This year, overcoming\nlong-held concerns about misuse of their data, Canada released all their data\nholdings at 100m resolution to the IHO Data Center for Digital Bathymetry.  This should give us another bump this year.<\/p>\n\n\n

We have already doubled the coverage of the GEBCO grid since\nundertaking the grand challenge of Seabed 2030 just a year and half ago. We need\nto talk with industry, academic, and commercial leaders, and gently challenge\nthem. What is proprietary about this data? Can a subset be shared now? How\nabout in five years? <\/p>\n\n\n

In addition to efforts to tap existing data, we need to map the gaps. We\nhave estimated the scope of this challenge, in both national and international\nwaters.  It is clear that the level of\neffort expands significantly as the water becomes shallower, and that these\nshallower waters are overwhelmingly in national jurisdictions. As a result, the\nbulk of the mapping effort will need to be coordinated with national\ngovernments.  <\/p>\n\n\n

In a recent analysis of US waters, we divided the unmapped area\nbetween deep ocean and continental shelf at 200 meters. The shallow side of\nthis line represented 20 percent of the area, but 90 percent of the level of\neffort. And this didn\u2019t even include waters less than 40 meters.  <\/p>\n\n\n

While the US is still in the planning stages of a big campaign,\nIreland has been leading the way by mapping the seabed in its waters. \nThe resulting high resolution bathymetry has been made readily\navailable, and is being used broadly.  The\n250-meter-resolution maps of New Zealand\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone provides the\nmost up-to-date bathymetry in the deep-water seabed under its national\njurisdiction. Many more national mapping organizations have recognized and\naccepted their part in this goal as well. <\/p>\n\n\n

Working regionally provides opportunities to identify shared\npriorities, demonstrate near-term successes, identify crowd-sourcing partners,\nbuild capacity, and share best practices. \n<\/p>\n\n\n

In the Atlantic, there is a regional mapping effort called ASPIRE\nincluding groups from the United States, the European Union, Iceland, Russia\nand Canada, representing governments, academia, and industry. This past June,\nthe 16 regional hydrographic commissions agreed to make Seabed 2030 an ongoing\nagenda item in their annual meetings. They will liaise with the Seabed 2030\nregional data assembly centers, track regional progress on an annual basis and\npromote data sharing and crowdsourcing. This gives us an entree to nearly every\ncoastal state.   <\/p>\n\n\n

In addition, Seabed 2030 has inspired some key private organizations\nto contribute in substantial ways. Fugro, the world\u2019s largest survey company,\nhas committed to collecting bathymetry along their tracklines between jobs and\nhas already delivered thousands of miles of high-resolution multibeam. Victor\nVescovo and his Five Deeps expeditions has committed to donating all the\nbathymetry from their projects and transits to the IHO DCDB, where it will\nsupport Seabed 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n

Each of these exemplary early participants has a community of peers,\nwhich could be similarly inspired to donate data. We are working with leaders\nin the offshore oil and gas and cruise ship industries and hope to have a few\nkey partnerships there as well. <\/p>\n\n\n

Finally, we have a passionate cadre of young professionals who are\nworking together and within their own organizations to advance the cause. The\nalumni group of the GEBCO scholars program formed a multi-national team to\nenter the ocean mapping XPrize competition. They developed and successfully\ndemonstrated an unmanned survey system capable of mapping the seabed at high\nresolution far from shore. To a packed house at the Monaco Oceanographic\nMuseum, they won the grand prize and inspired a generation.  <\/p>\n\n\n

The Seabed 2030 project structure itself has matured. All the Regional\nData Assembly Centers are up and running, and are getting into a rhythm of\ncompiling gap analyses that recognize progress and guide further action. I have\nknown Jamie McMichael Phillips, the new project director, for a few years, and\nhave seen his ability to lead groups and build consensus. He is well known and\ninfluential among national hydrographic offices and will be important to their\nongoing support.  <\/p>\n\n\n

We have aligned this project with the UN Decade of Ocean Science and\nwith the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, providing an opportunity to\nfurther build momentum in a larger community. The key to maintaining and\ngrowing this coalition is to use the one renewable resource we have in\nabundance.  Gratitude.  Every part of this coalition needs to feel\nvalued and part of the team.  We risk the\nsuccess of the project is if we allow the coalition to shrink.  <\/p>\n\n\n

As human populations grow, we are increasingly turning to the ocean \u2014 for\nenergy, minerals, food, or medicines \u2014 and this trend will only accelerate in\nthe coming years.  We need to do this sustainably, but\nocean-related management decisions can only be based on the best available\nscience and information.  Detailed\nknowledge of the shape of the seafloor is a crucial, and currently missing,  piece of the puzzle.  <\/p>\n\n\n

So, in the three years since our first meeting, we have laid the\nfoundation for a decade-long global program. We have documented the\nbenefits.  We have begun developing the\ntechnology. We have some early leaders in data sharing. We have built a global\ncoalition. We have whipped up the passion of our youth. We have a once in a\nlifetime opportunity to support an effort that will provide more information\nabout our ocean in the next ten years than we have amassed in the last four\ncenturies. That is the vision and the challenge of Seabed 2030. <\/p>\n\n\n

Seabed 2030 is an idea whose time has come. In the spirit of the epic\nexploration campaigns, that united the lands of earth and explored our solar\nsystem and beyond, it is time to explore the ocean planet. I\u2019m all in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 2019 comes to a close, we reflect not only on our accomplishments throughout the year, but also the exciting challenges that lie ahead, particularly in the field of hydrography. In late October 2019, Rear Adm. Shep Smith, director of NOAA\u2019s Office of Coast Survey and chair of the International Hydrographic Organization Council, delivered the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Future of Seabed 2030: From Vision to Action”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182810,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172906\/revisions\/182810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}