China's deep-sea manned submersible today carried out its first dive in the southwest Indian Ocean to look for deposits of copper, zinc and other precious metals.

The development of offshore wind farms in the North Sea started in 2006, and following the German government’s decision to decommission all nuclear power plants by 2022, the demand for offshore wind farm capacity is now more urgent. The government’s plans call for the installed capacity of offshore wind farms to be 6.5 GW by 2020.

Mermaid Maritime has bagged subsea contracts in the Middle East worth up to $45m. The Thai offshore company said that it won two saturation diving contracts in the Middle East both of six to eight months in duration. The first contract has already started and the second will commence on completion of the first for an undisclosed client.

Tesla Offshore will operate its AUV on a global basis and, specifically, in the Gulf of Mexico where US government regulatory agents are considering proposals that mandate archaeological and shallow hazard survey data be acquired by AUV technologies.

 

 

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Over 37 years ago, I stepped off the helicopter onto the semi-submersible Bredford Dolphin to begin my career in the diving industry. I was a member of Sub Sea’s dive team ramping up for the season’s surface and saturation diving campaign on the Piper Alpha structure in the North Sea. A wide-eyed kid from the Dakota oilfields, I was convinced the saturation and surface diving systems we worked were nothing less than "state of art", my team members were completely competent, thoroughly trained and proficient in their craft and our procedures were foolproof. We all looked up to and aspired to be that rare individual, the "super-duper-do-anything-you-can’t bend-‘em-deep-sea-diver", the stuff of legends.

RETIRED oil rig diver has published a compilation of short stories inspired by the 12 years he lived in a Teesdale village. E Van Johnson, who is also an accomplished musician and ran Barnard Castle Folk Club for several years, set the short stories in Bowes, after retiring to Mallorca. The author lived at Greydykes Cottage after moving to the village in 1974. He said: "We only had £5,000 savings and I did not want to go into debt so we looked around and finally found the cottage in Bowes which I bought at auction. I was working in the North Sea on a two weeks on, two weeks off schedule.

Looking back, 2014 could be classified as the year of recovered buried treasure as six discoveries made international headlines throughout the year. One of the biggest buried treasure stories this year was Odyssey Marine, who focus on deep ocean exploration, resuming salvage operations of the SS Central America, which was halted for 23 years as the 1988 discovery was mired in legal disputes. In its first dive the company recovered more than 1,000 ounces of gold. The company said that more than 15,500 gold and silver coins were recovered during this year’s salvage operation.

During Navy Special Ops training, candidates complete exhaustive missions under extreme stress, limited sleep, and in freezing water conditions. For the last 25 years, the US military has used an ingestible thermometer pill to monitor the core body temperature of service members during physically demanding missions.

The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has deployed 21 divers to look for AirAsia QZ8501 plane around Pangkalanbun waters, Central Kalimantan. "Some 21 divers comprising 11 Indonesian Navy personnel and 10 rescue team members will search the AirAsia debris site," Basarnas Head Rear Marshals TNI FHB Bambang Soelistyo said here on Tuesday.

High school students navigated nuclear meltdowns, crossed frozen tundras, and ventured into space through the use of robots at Guam Community College. Students participating in the program said they were interested in careers in marine technology, programming, engineering, and more.

The importance of bathymetry may be obvious to mariners, ocean modellers and marine geologists, but among the general public only the boating community seems to understand the importance of knowing water depths and the shape of the sea bottom. Most uses of bathymetry are not compelling enough to attract the attention of the general public, yet there are many instances where knowing the shape of the bottom can save lives.

In November 2014, EvoLogics experts joined scientists from the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Germany, who led a two-week campaign north and south of the Darga river outlet on the Dead Sea coast in Israel. The divers investigated distribution and dimensions of the springs and sampled the spring water. The EvoLogics autonomous unmanned surface vehicle (USV) Sonobot was chosen to perform a bathymetric survey and seafloor mapping at the site.

Engineers from Singapore have created a smart turtle robot that could aid humans with underwater tasks such as oceanic surveys and inspections of cables, the ship hull or a propeller's shaft.

EdgeTech, USA, recently announced the shipment of additional 4125 Sidescan Sonar units to the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The most recent shipment to the Wilmington District brings the total units shipped to USACE districts this year into double digits. Other USACE districts purchasing 4125 Sidescan Sonar units from EdgeTech in the recent past include: New England District, Norfolk District, New Orleans District, St. Louis District, and Kansas City District. Many of the districts have purchased multiple units.

A UV-LED (ultraviolet, 250-300nm @500µW, light-emitting diode) is integrated into the conductivity sensor quartz cell (patent pending) of Idronaut’s 305Plus CTD probe. The UV-LED sterilises the early growth of biofouling, thus eliminating environmental drift in a conductivity sensor.

4Geo, the GeoMax dealer in Germany, and software expert Keven Corazza have worked closely with the Lübeck Port Authority (Germany) to create a solution specifically designed to fulfil their specific requirements for a marine application. The system, created by GeoMax, connects a GPS antenna and sonar with specially created X-Pad software.