Fugro Leads World’s Ocean Floor Mapping

Fugro has informed that it is leading the marine survey industry in support of NF-GEBCO Seabed 2030, a global initiative to produce a high-resolution bathymetric map of the entire world’s ocean floor by the year 2030. 

The Seabed 2030 initiative is being facilitated by the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) project in partnership with The Nippon Foundation (NF) as a means to inform global policy, improve sustainable use and advance scientific research.

The company has devised a methodology for collecting valuable high resolution bathymetry datasets while its vessels are transiting between survey projects.

“Fugro has displayed exemplary corporate leadership by sharing transit data from two of its survey vessels,” said Seabed 2030 project director, Satinder Bindra. “In the coming months we look forward to receiving more transit data from all its survey vessels, which we believe will serve as a shining example to others in the industry and play an important role in helping us map the entire ocean floor for the benefit of humanity by 2030.”

Fugro is also working with its clients to investigate how their datasets may be incorporated into the Seabed 2030 programme whilst ensuring the integrity of their data.

In a complementary initiative it is also helping to establish a workflow for integrating third party datasets into the overall project database, addressing such things as data formats and metadata standards, the company explained.

“We are proud to continue our support of the Seabed 2030 programme and to lead industry participation in this way,” said David Millar, Fugro’s government accounts director in the Americas. “As an appreciable portion of our work is ocean related, Seabed 2030 provides a perfect opportunity for us to contribute to global society and practice good ocean stewardship.”