The largest aggregation of fishes ever recorded in the abyssal deep sea was discovered by a team of oceanographers from the University of Hawaiâi at MÄnoa (UH, USA), Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI, USA) and the NOC. The findings were published recently in Deep-Sea Research this week.  The researchers made the observation on an expedition to the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The CCZ is a large region stretching nearly from Hawaiâi to Mexico, which is being explored for deep sea mining of nodules containing metals such as copper, cobalt, zinc and manganese.  Read more about this research on our website.
This month sees the start of a new international NOC-led collaborative project to better understand the ultra deep-sea through innovative adaptation of sensors to withstand the crushing pressures at depths of down to 11,000 metres.
Funded through the NERC Global Partnerships Seedcorn Fund, the project will bring together experts from the NOC with researchers from the newly-created centre of excellence for ultra-deep sea research - the Danish Center for Hadal Research (HADAL) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), to jointly improve knowledge about the processes governing organic carbon degradation in deep-sea trenches.  Read the full story on our website.  Dr Allison Schaap prepares sensors for pressure testing On Thursday the CME Programme ran an online workshop on Coastal Monitoring and Modelling for Small Island Developing States focused on the Caribbean. The workshop was attended by up to 35 participants from at least seven countries, and initial feedback was very positive, so we hope to follow this up with a longer workshop in March 2021.  The workshop consisted of three 20-min presentations on Coastal Hazards, Coastal Monitoring and Coastal Modelling, interspersed with breakout discussion groups. There were some stimulating discussions about the needs and availability of data in the individual states.  We will shortly be making the talks and a summary of the discussions available to download, and further suggestions for downloads and training will be available from the presentations.  On Saturday, a new satellite that will allow UK scientists to measure sea level rise - one of the biggest threats posed by climate change - launched on a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg, California.  Thanks to funding from the UK Space Agency, experts across the UKâs ocean and climate community, including the National Oceanography Centre and Met Office, will be at the forefront of analysing the most accurate data yet on sea levels and sea state, and how our oceans are changing in response to climate change.  Read more about how we will use this data on our website.
The NOCâs Aidan Thorn, Marine Robotics Innovation Centre Manager, was crowned the winner in the Oil and Gas Technology Centreâs (OGTC) âTechnology Pitch Battleâ this week.  Aidan was invited by the OGTC to take part in the competition at their Offshore Decommissioning Conference 2020. His pitch was declared the winner from a field of eight strong participants following a vote by 250 delegates. The pitch was around a NOC-developed shore-launched autonomous survey system for oil and gas applications that would reduce costs and carbon on current survey methods.  This was not only a great exposure for the NOCâs capabilities but also provided strong validation of a potential use of our pioneering Marine Autonomous Systems by an informed industry audience.  Congratulations to Aidan and the whole team behind this result.  OGTC pitch battle award trophy Take part in a series of short online quizzes to be in with the chance of winning prizes, and help NERC to improve the user experience and accessibility of a range of web portals.  The Environmental Data Discovery Trails - organised by the NOCâs Dr Jenny Brown, our representative on NERCâs Constructing a Digital Environment Expert Network - will ask you to navigate a website and find the information linked to each trail. If you complete all of the feedback boxes youâll be entered into the prize draw. Don't worry if you canât find the answers - in fact, that's one of the things we need to know! Simply fill in the feedback boxes to tell us, hit 'submit' and you will still be entered into the draw.  Tomorrow (Saturday) there will be a prize draw for £100 if you take part at https://digitalenvironment.org/data-trails/   Digital Trails promotional banner We've got a stand at this year's Oceanology International CONNECT 2020 next week, so please do pay us a visit if you are attending. Delegates can book meetings via the online event platform, and we'll have a team of friendly experts on hand to discuss how the NOC can work with your business.  Oceanology International Connect banner advert |