Technology Changes But People Stay the Same

As I mentioned in the first issue of this year, we are celebrating our 20^th anniversary in 2016. Interestingly enough, the idea for a dedicated magazine for the hydrographic community first arose during the annual Hydro conference in Rotterdam and was undoubtedly discussed at Oceanology International (OI) in 1996 too – which at that time was held in Brighton. Twenty years on and Hydro International is still going strong, as are the Hydro events – such as the 2015 edition in Cape Town – and ‘good old’ OI – although no longer in Brighton (much to the disappointment of the slightly older generation who still reminisce about it occasionally) but rather in one of the most efficient exhibition venues around: London’s ExCeL.

This year, from 15 to 17 March, the event will once again showcase products from more than 350 exhibitors in the areas of marine science and ocean technology, in subfields including fisheries, marine renewables, offshore oil & gas and many, many more. There will be 11 vessels docked at the quayside ready to take visitors on a demo tour and the conference features nine separate streams. Readers of Hydro International will of course be interested in hydrography which is widely represented in London this year – on the show floor, during the conference and on the water. If you are not able to attend or if you would like to prepare for your visit, please see our OI Preview, put together by our managing editor Joost Boers. This overview of companies that are presenting their new and current products is an ideal guide to the event.

Needless to say, this issue of Hydro International contains much more too. We have an interview with Rodney Norman of The Netherlands’ Royal IHC on the Horizon 2020 ‘Blue Nodules’ project in which he addresses the challenge of creating a viable and sustainable chain to retrieve nodules from the ocean floor. Hydrographic surveyors are key in this process, says Norman This issue also features an article on ‘Raw data as information source’ by Bas van de Sande, Eelco Bijl and Jelle Tamminga. Dwight Coleman updates you on the possibilities of running a research cruise from shore in his article on ‘Telepresence technology’ and, last but not least, Mikael Bliksted Larsen and Martin Juhl Jørgensen report on the fast approach of ultra-high-resolution subsea mobile mapping in their article on ‘Acoustically aided INS (AAINS) and laser/Lidar’. These are all worthwhile reads that provide you with a glimpse of the (not-too-distant) future.

A lot has changed over the past 20 years – as you will no doubt agree when looking at these and other recent articles – but much has stayed the same too, such as meeting each other at yet another Oceanology International! We are there on Stand L10 this year so please stop by and see us! Hydro International is proudly producing this year’s OI Show Daily publications so our team will be out in force to put together a daily round-up of all the OI-related happenings.

Before signing off for this month, I would just like to welcome two new contributing editors to our team: Martien Coolegem, cartographer at the Royal Netherlands Navy (Hydrographic Office), and Auke van der Werf, offshore surveyor at Royal Shell. These new additions for Hydro International are both enthusiastic hydrographic professionals who will be working hard to bring you the very best, state-of-the-art and top-quality content. Good luck to them both!