A Quarter of the World’s Ocean Floor Now Mapped Under Seabed 2030 Project (4)

In February, The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, which aims to complete the mapping of the world’s ocean floor before the end of the decade, entered into a strategic partnership with ecoSUB Robotics of the United Kingdom, a subsidiary of Planet Ocean, specialized in the design and construction of autonomous underwaters vehicles (AUVs).

This collaboration is set to significantly advance the project's objective of creating a complete map of the ocean floor. The innovative AUVs of ecoSUB Robotics have the ability to explore areas that are inaccessible to scientists and divers for safety reasons, thus contributing significantly to the mapping effort.

The portability and affordability of ecoSUB AUVs enables Seabed 2030 to explore the capabilities offered by compact autonomous systems for survey, science and exploration.

Mr. Terry Sloane, managing director of Planet Ocean, commented: “At ecoSUB Robotics, we’re committed to increasing accessibility to AUVs and making this groundbreaking technology available to all. Advancing oceanographic research will benefit the entire population and AUVs play an invaluable role in progressing this field of ocean science. We look forward to supporting the global effort in pursuit of a complete ocean map led by Seabed 2030 through the development of our advanced, yet affordable, AUV technology.”

Mr. Jamie McMichael-Phillips, Seabed 2030 project director, said: “Not only do AUVs enable us to access hazardous areas, but they also provide a solution to the mapping of remote and uncharted areas. Collaborative working is essential to Seabed 2030 and it’s through partnerships－such as this with ecoSUB Robotics－that we’re able to ensure our strategy remains forward-looking, and that our efforts are well-positioned to make use of innovative technologies as they become available to progress our goal."

When Seabed 2030 was launched in 2017, only 6% of the world’s ocean floor had been mapped in high resolution. In that same year, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the Ocean Decade, with a key challenge of developing a comprehensive map of the ocean, to ensure a more sustainable management of the marine environment and its resources. Seabed 2030 is a flagship program of the Ocean Decade.

In the six years since, a monumental total of 90 million square kilometers of bathymetric data has been acquired by virtue of global partnerships, data mobilization and strides in technological innovation.

We remain humbly aware, of course, that the latest achievement leaves 75% of the world’s seabed still to be mapped.

Some of the key challenges to mapping the entire ocean floor include overcoming the vast scale and depth of the ocean, limited technological capabilities, the high cost of mapping expeditions, and capacity building.

The goal is ambitious yet entirely achievable if we can mobilize the global community to participate. I sincerely hope that everyone with a link to the ocean will do as much as they can to help map the entire seafloor by the end of the decade.

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