Crowdsourced bathymetry is increasingly seen as a way to expand seabed coverage by collecting depth measurements from vessels during routine operations. Yet as data volumes grow, t...

For generations, hydrographers explored the oceans with a lead-line and a chart that was mostly empty white space. Over the past hundred years, however, ocean mapping has leapt fro...

Recent research demonstrates that multibeam echosounder (MBES) water column data deserves closer attention from the hydrographic community, particularly for the remote estimation o...

In order to ensure safe navigation, Flemish Hydrography (FH) uses multibeam echosounders to precisely determine the depth and shape of shipwrecks. After a detailed survey and proce...

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 farms, 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 uncrewed surface vehicles equipped with echos...

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...

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...

As readers of Hydro International know, the world’s ports and harbours are crucial to global trade. From Singapore to Antwerp, and from Shanghai to Rotterdam, Los Angeles, ot...

Recently, the European Marine Board published a report on the current status of the European fleet of research vessels. This position paper describes how the fleet will need to dev...

An estimated 600,000 tons of abandoned fishing gear ends up in the oceans every year. According to the United Nations, some 380,000 marine mammals are killed each year, either by i...

While the exigencies of climate change have led to major strides in the development and deployment of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and others, the world’s ene...

Mark Heine is chairman of the board and CEO of Fugro, which is headquartered in the Netherlands. Fugro is among the leading and largest specialized survey companies in the world, s...

Considered paradise by the legions of tourists who visit each year, the Caribbean islands are developing states that struggle to maintain a delicate balance between economic expans...

Denmark has challenging seascapes to map and chart. It has a rich history of nautical charting that dates back to the seventeenth century, and many of its navigational products for...

What is the core role of a hydrographer? To map the seafloor? Provide a precise position on the water? Some may believe it is to play with lots of expensive toys on boats, while co...

More than 70% of the Earth is made up of oceans, yet the underwater domain is the least known area of our planet. Even now, in the technologically advanced 21st century, only an es...

Live transmissions from unexplored regions deep below the Indian Ocean have underlined the role that reliable, high-speed broadband is playing at sea in expanding knowledge and pro...

A 7m (23ft) long, wind-powered unmanned surface vehicle (USV) has become the first unmanned system to circumnavigate Antarctica. Known as SD 1020 and equipped with a suite of scien...

In order to guarantee nautical depths, the Rijkswaterstaat survey department runs an annual seabed monitoring programme. In July 2019, research vessel MS Arca left its home port of...