The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, the initiative leading the global effort underway to map the world's ocean floor by 2030, is pleased to announce its latest partnership with GeoAcoustics, a leading innovator in marine technology.
Based in the UK, GeoAcoustics has been a prominent provider of subsea sensors and equipment for over four decades. The company specializes in the design, development and manufacture of advanced side scan, bathymetry and sub-bottom profiling sonar-systems. The company’s innovative technology is capable of delivering exceptionally high-quality marine data, and its field-proven hydroacoustic products have transformative implications for the maritime industry, particularly in the realms of seabed mapping and research.
With the integration of powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI), the GeoSwath 4 bathymetric sonar offers real-time, quality-controlled data acquisition, reducing costs and survey time as data can be accessed onboard in real-time, or remotely during the survey. These advanced AI capabilities introduce new efficiencies that streamline marine survey workflows, making it easier for organizations to share high quality bathymetric data with the Seabed 2030 Project.
Seabed 2030 is a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), which seeks to inspire the complete mapping of the world’s ocean by 2030, and to compile all the data into the freely available GEBCO Ocean Map. The Project is formally endorsed as a Decade Action of the UN Ocean Decade. GEBCO is a joint program of the IHO and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and is the only organization with a mandate to map the entire ocean floor.
"Advancements in marine technology are essential if we are to achieve our goal of mapping the ocean floor entirely by the end of the decade," commented Seabed 2030 Project Director Jamie McMichael-Phillips. “It’s thanks to innovative technologies, such as those offered by GeoAcoustics, that we can make great strides in our collective understanding of the ocean.”
Richard Dowdeswell, Chief Commercial Officer of GeoAcoustics said: “The production of seabed maps is the cornerstone of everything that happens at sea, which is why we’re proud to partner with Seabed 2030 and have our products play a key role in realizing the ambitious yet necessary mission to map 100 per cent of the ocean.”
All data collected and shared with the Seabed 2030 project is included in the free and publicly available GEBCO global grid.
