In the spring of 2016 we worked with Mote Marine Lab in Sarasota FL to explore the potential benefits of operating in conjunction with their Slocum G2 glider deployment. We launched and recovered “Vela”, one of our prototype Nav2 ASV’s equipped with flourometer and CT sensors from the beach, off a skiff and from docks of opportunity using the vehicle’s thruster to navigate channels when required.
Source: Ocean News & Technology
There’s been huge interest and controversy over how much of the sea we really need to protect in order to safeguard life there and the benefits it provides to humanity. The science says we should raise our ambitions and protect something of the range of 30 to 40 percent of the oceans from exploitation and harm.
This is well above the United Nations target of 10 percent protection by 2020, set under the Convention on Biological Diversity. But it is consistent with the recommendation of at least 30 percent protection made by the World Parks Congress in 2014. Currently, approximately 6 percent of the global ocean has been set aside as marine protected areas (MPA) or is earmarked for future protection, according to the MPAtlas.
New data on the economic health of the ocean and coastal economies suggest that future growth will largely take place in the narrow band of coastal lands threatened by climate change and sea level rise. The forecast is contained in the latest report from the National Ocean Economic Program (NOEP), a unit of the Center for the Blue Economy (CBE) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA.
