ENVIRONMENT
Mapping the Atlantic – EU, US
and Canadian scientists take on
the final frontier
17 April 2015
by Catherine Collins
Understanding the Atlantic Ocean requires cooperation between nations. Image Credit: Shutterstock
The EU is teaming up with the US and Canada to make the first ever full map of an ocean floor,
and they hope it will help to understand issues like climate change better.
'The ocean research community has no borders,' Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for
Research, Science and Innovation, said during an event in Brussels on 16 April called The Atlantic Our Shared resource. Making the Vision Reality.
In June, the Irish government’s RV Celtic Explorer, a
65.5-metre-long research vessel that has already
mapped most of Ireland’s seabed, will cross from
Newfoundland, Canada, to Galway, Ireland, taking
eight kilometre transects right down to the ocean floor
as it goes.
It's an example of science diplomacy as for the pilot
voyage, scientists from the Marine Institute, Ireland,
will be joined by a team made up of ocean mapping
experts from the US, Canada and the EU.
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Science is a common
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The plan is that after this pilot voyage, the mapping
will be extended to cover the whole ocean floor.
language – Commissioner
Moedas
‘It’s never been done before, on any ocean,’ Simon
Coveney, the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food,
Marine and Defence, said during the event in Brussels.
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The ship can scan as deep as eight to nine kilometres,
which would almost reach the deepest point on earth –
the 11 kilometre Challenger Deep in the Pacific
Ocean’s Mariana Trench.
Science diplomacy –
research across borders
The scientists on board the RV Celtic Explorer will use multibeam mapping systems to get an idea of
what the ocean floor looks like. Soundwaves are emitted from the ship and a receiving device then
creates a digital picture of the ocean floor based on the echo signals that return.
‘Instead of seeing the Atlantic Ocean as this barrier that divides us, why not look at it as a resource
that pulls us together,’ said Minister Coveney.
‘When you combine the resources and the expertise and the technology in Europe, the US and Canada,
and you put that together, actually we could develop a much more detailed understanding of the
Atlantic environment quite quickly if we work together on it.’
‘Instead of seeing the Atlantic Ocean as this barrier that divides us, why not look at it as a resource
that pulls us together.’
Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food, Marine and Defence, Simon Coveney
Corals
So little is known about the deep sea that any
number of results could be obtained. Thomas
Furey, who coordinated the Irish National Seabed
Mapping Survey programme and is heavily involved
in the Atlantic mapping project, said that when they
mapped the Irish seabed, they discovered deep
water corals that had never been known to exist
there before.
‘I was fortunate to be on the ship that mapped
those in the first instance,’ he said.
Not only is seabed mapping important for
discovering features like the corals, it’s also
important for oil and gas mapping, for aquaculture,
for fishing, for understanding spawning grounds and
to understand the ecosystems in the sea depths.
‘Instead of seeing
the Atlantic Ocean
as this barrier that
divides us, why not
look at it as a
resource that pulls
us together.’
Irish Minister for
Agriculture, Food, Marine
and Defence, Simon
Coveney
The way the sea functions can have an effect on
climate change. For example, the EU-funded
EURO-BASIN project discovered that less carbon
is being removed from the atmosphere by plankton due to factors like climate change, fisheries and
habitat change.
‘We need to understand better the role of climate change and fisheries on the ecosystem,’ EUROBASIN coordinator Professor Michael St. John said on the sidelines of the event in Brussels. ‘We’ve
just touched the edge, there’s much more that needs to be done.’
More info
EURO-BASIN
European Commission News Alert
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