A new partnership has been announced between The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project and Global Oceans.
The two parties will work together to further our understanding of ocean bathymetry and contribute to the global effort to produce the definitive map of the ocean floor, complementing the goals of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Seabed 2030 is a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and GEBCO to inspire the complete mapping of the world's ocean by 2030, and to compile all bathymetric data into the freely available GEBCO Ocean Map. GEBCO is a joint programme of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and is the only organisation with a mandate to map the entire ocean floor. Seabed 2030 is formally endorsed as a Decade Action of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Based in the US, Global Oceans is a non-profit organisation designed to integrate and mobilise private-sector offshore resources through its MARV™ ship model (Modular Adaptive Research Vessels) to dynamically expand ocean science capacity on regionally deployed manned platforms worldwide. Global Oceans is launching new projects that will utilize MARVs™ and ocean exploration technologies to enable more intensive ocean and atmospheric investigation and greater international scientific collaboration.
“We believe that in order to undertake meaningful action to tackle the impact of climate change and human activity we need to accelerate our scientific understanding of the ocean at a global scale and so we wholly subscribe to Seabed 2030’s mission to map the global seabed,” commented Jim Costopulos, CEO of Global Oceans. “Accessing high-resolution bathymetric data is essential to our projects, and we look forward to supporting Seabed 2030’s efforts by exploring opportunities to co-finance extended mapping on Global Oceans’ projects, to make available our 6000-meter Ocean Explorer 6000 towed system to be re-built with multibeam sonar for mapping, and to support new Seabed 2030-related projects on MARV™ vessels.”
Seabed 2030 Project Director Jamie McMichael-Phillips said “A complete map of the seabed will enable us to make informed decisions which can safeguard the future of our planet – Global Oceans recognises this and the fundamental role the oceans play in sustaining human life. We are therefore delighted to announce this new partnership as we make headway with our goal of the definitive map of the ocean floor by the end of this decade.”
All data collected and shared with the Seabed 2030 Project is included in the GEBCO global grid, which is free and publicly available.
