“In all beginnings dwells a magic force …”. Hermann Hesse’s famous verse seems to be particularly relevant to the coming decade when it comes to marine act...

Autonomous underwater vehicles are becoming more and more common in the maritime industry, and technology is rapidly developing for different applications, such as inspection, main...

Although the single beam echosounder is still in use, it has over the last 25 years gradually been replaced with new and less expensive multibeam echosounder (MBES) systems. And, a...

In the last decades, we have progressed from ‘graphic’ to ‘digital’ and now to ‘spatial’. During the opening plenary session of the Canadian Hyd...

In 2019, Swire Seabed successfully used a novel AUV/USV solution to complete a commercial pipeline inspection campaign, surveying 175km of pipe. This involved use of a HUGIN AUV pa...

Accurate bathymetric mapping of shallow areas is essential for a plethora of offshore activities. Through Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multiview Stereo (MVS) techniques, images...

While there is still lots of ocean mapping work to do on Earth, oceans situated elsewhere in our solar system hold plenty of mysteries too, writes Wim van Wegen in this column. The...

Sea ice is one of the most important parameters when it comes to ice-albedo feedback; in other words, the fraction of incoming solar radiation that is reflected directly back into...

Currently, calibration of multibeam echosounders (MBES) for hydrographic surveys is based on the traditional ‘patch test’ method. This subjective method, although rigor...

It is widely and wrongly assumed that the world’s coastal regions have been surveyed in detail by modern techniques and that the resulting nautical charts are an accurate ref...

Certification is the next step in your hydrographic and offshore surveying career, according to experienced hydrographic surveyor Bruce Calderbank. The Canadian Hydrographer Certif...

With millions of people around the world at risk from rising seas, it is essential to continue measuring the changing height of the sea surface to ensure that decision makers are e...

After 75 years, and using advanced imaging technology, ocean explorer Tim Taylor and his Lost 52 Expedition Team have officially discovered the final resting place of the 49 s...

Balmoral Subsea Test Centre in Aberdeen, Scotland, has carried out hydrostatic tests on equipment that will be used to monitor the interaction between tidal turbines and marine mam...

What is the best image classification technique to optimize maps so that effective action can be taken to conserve seagrass meadows? The distribution of Posidonia oceanica seagrass...

On 20 September 2019, the German research icebreaker Polarstern left Tromsø, Norway, for what could be the biggest Arctic research expedition of all time. Once she reac...

Munitions in the sea pose a risk to the sustainable development of the ocean economy. In particular, they are a global challenge during the construction of wind parks, pipelines an...

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is a significant part of the water cycle that delivers anthropogenically derived and naturally occurring nutrients to coastal waters. As part...

Inspection of dams is a high-risk task for divers because of strong currents and eddies. The use of emerging technologies such as unmanned surface vehicles equipped with echosounde...

The AUV has been the tool of choice for shallow-water MCM and EOD operations for a number of years. The coverage by popular news channels of unfortunate events, such as the MH370 t...

NOAA is using a systematic approach to map all US waters in support of Seabed 2030 objectives and to contribute to the complete mapping of the world’s oceans in the next ten...

"It wasn’t always easy being a black woman in my early days as an oceanographer,” says Dawn Wright, chief scientist at a worldwide operating company specialized in mapp...

Located in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, the Weddell Sea generates extremely dense bottom water that spreads into all the world’s ocean basins, transporting oxyg...

Newly developed 3D imaging technology has allowed scientists to map Darwin Mounds, a unique area of cold-water coral reefs off the coast of Scotland, to see whether it ha...

On 12 March, the Dutch government decided to ‘lock down’ all activities involving multiple persons, including education. That decision immediately affected the hydrogra...