Channel NewsAsia 23 Feb 12;
SINGAPORE: The Catlin Seaview Survey was launched on Thursday at the World Ocean Summit in Singapore to conduct the first comprehensive study and document the health of the Great Barrier Reef across an unprecedented depth range.
There has been a push towards a better understanding of ocean life and cultivation to ease the pressure on fisheries amid rising affluence and growing demand for seafood.
Oceans cover 71 per cent of the globe. They provide food, leisure, facilitate sea trade and support economies around the globe.
With the Catlin Survey, one will be able to take a closer look at what happens within the depths of the ocean from the comfort of their own home.
Findings of the Catlin Survey, which comprises of a shallow reef survey, a deep reef survey and a mega-fauna survey, will provide a baseline assessment of the composition, biodiversity and well-being of the Reef.
These findings will be available for viewing on Google.
The expedition will be launched on the Great Barrier Reef in September 2012.
The Catlin Seaview Survey is a collaboration between global insurance company Catlin Group, project creators not-for-profit organisation Underwater Earth and partner Google.
In a statement, the chief scientist for the project, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the Global Change institute at The University of Queensland, said that the scientific data gathered during the project will strengthen the understanding about how climate change and other environmental changes are likely to affect ocean ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef.
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said: "The Catlin Seaview Survey comprises a series of studies which will reveal to the public one of the last frontiers on Earth: the oceans. For the first time in history, we have the technology available to broadcast the findings and expedition through Google. Millions of people will be able to experience the life, the science and the magic that exists under the surface of our oceans. This project is very exciting."
The study is expected to highlight the impact of issues such as global warming.
And ocean conservationists said that while oceans are a huge source of protein, they have not been immune to the effects of booming consumption.
For example, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that 70 per cent of seafood species are over-exploited or fully exploited.
Oceana's CEO Andy Sharpless, said: "We are very optimistic that the oceans have a role in feeding humanity that people haven't realised. And if you look ahead to the middle of the century and look at the protein that people are going to eat, the oceans are going to be a wonderful way to make that happen. And we as conservationists are here to point out that some very basic ocean fishery principles put in place can increase the amount of wild fish that are caught from the ocean on a sustainable basis."
Oceana, the largest international organisation working solely to protect the world's oceans, said industry and government players just need to consider a few steps to make the ocean more productive.
Mr Sharpless said: "One of the great things about oceans is that there are just three things that we need to do to make them more productive. One is to protect nursery areas from being destroyed and bottom trawling is a form of fishing where heavily weighted nets are dragged across the bottom of the ocean. There are other much more selective ways for catching fish including bottom long lines which is the most obvious technique that fishermen can use - and you can catch them with lines and hooks - that are on the bottom instead of ragging your net along the bottom."
Oceana would like to see large areas of the ocean declared off limits to methods such as bottom trawling.
- CNA/fa
Ocean survey launches on Great Barrier Reef
University of Queensland 23 Feb 12;
A pioneering scientific expedition that will document the health of coral on the Great Barrier Reef will be undertaken as a joint venture between global technology giant Google, the UQ Global Change Institute, not-for-profit organisation Underwater Earth and insurance company Catlin.
The Catlin Seaview Survey, announced in Singapore today, aims to carry out the first comprehensive study of the composition and health of Reef coral to an unprecedented depth range (0-100m).
The project's chief scientist, Professor Ove Hoegh Guldberg from the Global Change Institute at The University of Queensland, said the scientific data gathered would strengthen the understanding about how climate change and other environmental changes are likely to affect ocean ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef.
“The visual nature of the project will also help bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and public awareness,” Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.
“The Catlin Seaview Survey comprises a series of studies which will reveal to the public one of the last frontiers on Earth: the oceans.
“For the first time in history, we have the technology to broadcast the findings and expedition through Google. Millions of people will be able to experience the life, the science and the magic that exists under the surface of our oceans. This project is very exciting.”
Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said the survey was not just another scientific expedition; it aimed to capture the public's imagination and engage people with the science like never before.
The Catlin Seaview Survey camera, developed specifically for the expedition, will capture thousands of 360-degree underwater panoramas. When stitched together, these will allow people to choose a location, dip underwater and go for a virtual dive at all of the locations visited by the expedition.
Google is collaborating with the Catlin Seaview Survey and is working on a new feature on Panoramio (which links photos to locations), so that the 360-degree panorama images can be uploaded and made available to millions of people worldwide.
This will eventually mean that roughly 50,000 panoramas from the Survey will be accessible on Catlin Seaview Survey in partnership with Google Earth and Google Maps.
The project also will have a dedicated YouTube channel and the ability to broadcast Hangouts on air, which allows people to watch livestreams of the expedition team from the ocean floor.
The Catlin Seaview Survey will include a shallow reef survey, a deep reef survey and a megafauna survey, which combined will provide a baseline assessment of the composition, biodiversity and wellbeing of the Reef. The expedition will launch on the Great Barrier Reef in September 2012.
The Catlin Seaview Survey will comprise three surveys:
1. The Shallow Reef Survey will use a custom-designed underwater vehicle with a 360-degree camera to generate imagery of the reef. In collaboration with The University of Queensland, this will be assessed using image recognition software to enable a rapid visual census of corals, fish and many other organisms at 20 sites across the entire length of the 2300km Great Barrier Reef. This will provide a broad-scale baseline for understanding climate change on coral reefs.
2. The Deep-Water Survey will use diving robots to explore the reef at depths of 30-100 metres. Little is known of this region, yet it may hold some of the secrets of whether or not the coral reefs will survive rapid climate change. Using a combination of high-definition cameras, deep-diving robots and survey equipment, the deep-water component will provide a comprehensive study of the health, composition and biodiversity of the deep-water reefs.
3. The Mega-Fauna Survey team, led by Emmy award-winning cinematographer and shark researcher Richard Fitzpatrick, will study the migratory behaviour of tiger sharks, green turtles and manta rays in response to increasing seawater temperatures. A total of 50 animals will be tracked with satellite tags that continuously monitor their geographic position, temperature and depth. This data can then be compared against oceanographic data to get a better understanding of the animals' behaviour and migrational responses to the warming of the oceans.
The Catlin Seaview Survey is sponsored by Catlin Group Limited, an international insurance and reinsurance company. Stephen Catlin, the founder and chief executive of Catlin Group Limited, said:
“We are sponsoring the Catlin Seaview Survey so that experts obtain objective scientific data they require to make more reliable conclusions about the impact of climate and environmental changes on our oceans and our planet as a whole. The results will be broadcast on a scale never attempted before, so it is an exciting time for science. We're proud to be part of the team leading this pioneering project.”
“As an insurer, Catlin offers our clients protection against many types of risks, so it is natural that we should lead the way in sponsoring research to discover the risks of tomorrow.”
Study aims to bring Great Barrier Reef to living rooms
David Fogarty Reuters Yahoo News 23 Feb 12;
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Finding Nemo is about to get a lot easier with the launch of a scientific survey that will allow anyone with access to the internet to take a virtual tour of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
The survey, which will use a variety of high-tech underwater cameras, will carry out one of the most intensive studies of the reef up to a depth of 100 meters (330 feet), with the public watching every step via Youtube and other Google sites.
"There are a whole series of ways of using the imagery and ultimately this is bridging a gap between science and public awareness," said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, chief scientist of the Catlin Seaview Survey.
"The only way to do that is to make it part of people's activities," Hoegh-Guldberg of the University of Queensland told Reuters during the launch of the survey at a conference on the oceans in Singapore.
The images will help better understand the impact of climate change on the reef and also help scientists carry out more regular surveys of fish, turtles and other animals.
A specifically developed camera attached to underwater vehicle will take thousands of 360-degree panoramic images from locations along the length of the 2,300 km (1,430 mile) reef off Queensland state.
These panoramas, when stitched together, will allow people to choose a location, dip underwater and go for a virtual dive.
Google's Panoramio site, which links pictures to locations, will eventually allow a total of about 50,000 panoramas to be uploaded and accessible via Google Earth and Google Maps.
The project (http://www.catlinseaviewsurvey.com/ ) will also have a dedicated Youtube channel.
"For the first time people will be able to explore thousands of environments along the length of the Great Barrier Reef from the comfort of their own home," cinematographer Richard Fitzpatrick told the conference during a live underwater interview from Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
Fishing and tourism along the reef earns Australia about $6 billion a year, Hoegh-Guldberg said, but scientists were still trying to figure out how rising sea temperatures and increased ocean acidity will affect the region over the long term.
The survey will also use robotic cameras to survey depths between 30 meters and 100 meters, a region scientists know little about, he said. This zone makes up 93 percent of the reef.
"So this becomes important in climate change because people have been suggesting those deeper areas may be protected from climate change and assist in the recovery of reef systems. But at the moment we don't know."
