On April 19, Global Oceans participated with sixty organizations in the first meeting of the Global Partnership for Oceans (GPO) hosted by the World Bank Group in Washington, DC. The intensive one-day meeting was designed to gather input from a broad range of government agencies, scientific organizations, NGOs and business representatives from the fisheries and seafood industries. The collective input will lead to a final memorandum to be announced at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Rio de Janiero in June, 2012.

The working framework for the GPO points out that ocean ecosystem services are contributing far less to global economic growth than they could be, primarily as a result of human actions on natural systems. Overfishing, pollution and habitat loss are contributing to a change in the health and productivity of the living ocean at a rate and scale not seen since the rise of modern civilization. Climate change is also affecting the ocean in ways we are only beginning to understand – all of which have contributed to a massive loss to the global economy.

The World Bank has proposed raising a 10-year fund of $1.5 billion to support a valuation analysis of enhanced ocean ecosystem services to better inform governance decisions; to invest in governance reforms such as rights-based fisheries management; and to fund global knowledge and advocacy for the living oceans.

Among the recommendations made by Global Oceans to the GPO were that criteria for identifying priorities should include areas of immediate threat of degradation or destruction; to utilize scientific data in developing economic valuation models and proposed governance policies; to use the Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) model for defining marine ecosystems; and for the GPO to promote the acceleration of establishing new MPAs and marine reserves globally.

Global Oceans looks forward to a continuing role in the GPO as a partner and to contributing to the scientific data needed through its science expeditions that will ultimately inform sustainable management policies worldwide.

For more information about the Global Partnership for Oceans visit: www.globalpartnershipforoceans.org/

Global Oceans and AUVAC will develop collaborative approaches to bringing AUV technology suppliers and the ocean science community together for expanded, cost-effective AUV deployment for scientific applications throughout the world’s oceans.

Global Oceans (Chicago, IL) and the Autonomous Undersea Vehicle Applications Center (Lee, NH) have agreed to work together to integrate the AUVAC’s broad-based industry database and consulting expertise with Global Oceans’ model of aligning and operating oceanographic research platforms from commercial maritime resources that can host AUV operations at sea, with the objective of cost-effectively expanding opportunities for using AUVs in ocean science.

AUV technology is becoming increasingly important for ocean measurements, mapping and research and the diversity of their capabilities and applications from leading suppliers is rapidly progressing. The ability of the Global Oceans model to support AUV operations, coupled with hosted international and multidisciplinary science teams on a shared, “open access” basis, can make these resources more accessible, cost-effective and more frequently utilized for scientific research.

Jim Costopulos, CEO of Global Oceans stated: “The AUVAC’s role as an informational hub for the AUV development community is a great aggregated resource for AUV technologies and vehicles that are currently available. Global Oceans will be working with AUVAC to usefully integrate this industry database with our online expedition and research planning tools to provide scientists with a greater range of AUV options on a user-defined basis, and which Global Oceans can support operationally in the field.”

Dick Blidberg, AUVAC’s Director stated: “We believe the AUV development community and AUVAC’s growing database of technical AUV information can be productively leveraged by aligning our resources with the user-driven planning and flexible deployment model that Global Oceans has developed. By exploring new ways to collaborate, we believe our joint efforts will enable greater in-field utilization of AUVs by ocean scientists and we look forward to helping to build these strategic links and informational connections through the tools and resources Global Oceans is able to offer.”

Global Oceans will also be participating in and submitting a white paper to the AUVAC’s 18th Annual Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology in August, 2013 (http://uust.org/). The presentation will focus on the value of expanding the ocean research infrastructure footprint globally, together with collaborative and shared use among international science teams of historically expensive “big science” assets such as AUVs – and how Global Oceans is changing the traditional paradigm.

About Global Oceans
Global Oceans is a US-based nonprofit organization that has established an optimized chartered ship model for oceanographic research applications which incorporates the short-term utilization of globally dispersed platform supply ships, modular laboratories, scientific equipment, supporting infrastructure and 24/7 logistics support in 265 worldwide ports. Partnerships with commercial fleet owners and equipment and service providers serving the offshore oil industry provide a reliable network of existing resources which is highly adaptable to each scientific mission and is scalable globally.

For more information about Global Oceans, please visit: www.global-oceans.org. Contact: Jim Costopulos, CEO; 847-334-5028.

About AUVAC
The AUVAC is a US-based nonprofit industry organization designed to advance the development, utilization and integration of AUV systems and technologies across multiple disciplines and applications worldwide. The AUVAC achieves this objective by sharing its global AUV industry database of over 350 vehicle manufacturers, technology suppliers and academic institutions; by hosting industry symposia; by providing an online resource for AUV-related publications, industry news and policy issues; and by hosting educational, training and career support activities.

For more information about AUVAC, please visit: www.auvac.org. Contact: Dick Blidberg, Director; 603-674-8097.

CHICAGO, IL – June 7, 2013

Global Oceans and Liquid Robotics today announced they have established a strategic agreement to jointly develop and promote new opportunities for ocean scientists to utilize Wave Glider® robotic technologies for scientific research on expeditions hosted by Global Oceans. One of the key goals of the Alliance is to accelerate researchers’ access to ocean data. Today, scheduling time on most research vessels to collect critical data has a queue of a year or more and transits to remote study areas are time consuming and expensive. The Global Oceans model of chartering globally distributed commercial vessels for oceanographic research was designed to address these limitations. The strategic alliance with Liquid Robotics will leverage and add value to this approach by coupling these new tools and services with greater access to the world’s oceans.

Liquid Robotics will make available a fleet of Wave Gliders for rapid deployment and available for use on a day-rate or longer-term lease basis through Global Oceans. As a result of the Alliance, Global Oceans can more readily mobilize these research and ocean observation tools for scientists to utilize on its expeditions.

Ship-based research and observation applications envisioned for the Wave Gliders include gathering environmental data over large areas during the course of an expedition; for generating three-dimensional mapping of acoustic signals in the field; for long term deployment within study areas for later retrieval; and in communication gateway applications in support of submersible operations and other sub-surface instrumentation and vehicles.

“While the rapidly evolving suite of Wave Glider platforms and enabling technologies are inherently designed to facilitate autonomous operations at sea, Global Oceans is interested in fostering and supporting the many applications where ship-based deployments are beneficial and where project-specific use of these assets can support traditional research on future Global Oceans’ expeditions,” said Jim Costopulos, CEO of Global Oceans. “The availability of Wave Gliders as part of this agreement will provide a valuable set of assets for scientists to modify and deploy on a project basis.”

Project-related technical support, training and instrument modification (e.g. sensor installations) will be made available to researchers for these and any additional units. Technical product data will also be supported on the GO-CEPT expedition-planning platform to be launched by Global Oceans in the near future.

“The alliance with Global Oceans opens new opportunities for customers to deploy Liquid Robotics’ unmanned ocean robots to greatly expand ship-based research capabilities,” said Gary Gysin, executive vice president, Liquid Robotics. “We look forward to working with Global Oceans to help scientists get their critical data faster and with greater geographic reach.”

About Global Oceans:

Global Oceans is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has developed an optimized chartered ship model for oceanographic research applications which incorporates the short-term utilization of globally dispersed offshore service vessels, modular laboratories, analytical equipment and global logistics support. More information is at www.global-oceans.org.

About Liquid Robotics:

Liquid Robotics is an ocean data services provider and developer of the Wave Glider®, the world’s first wave powered, autonomous marine robot designed to help address the biggest challenges the world faces, including global climate change, national security, hurricane and tsunami warning, and offshore energy and resource management. For more information, visit www.liquidr.com.           

Liquid Robotics and Wave Glider are registered trademarks of Liquid Robotics, Inc., in the United States and other countries. 

December 15, 2014 – Global Oceans is pleased to announce that Faiza Yousif Al-Yamani, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Environment & Life Sciences Research Center at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research in Safat, Kuwait has joined the Global Oceans Science Advisory Council.

Dr. Al-Yamani’s research includes a focus on trophic relationships in marine plankton ecology; plankton biodiversity; pelagic food chain dynamics; biogeochemical processes, ecosystem restoration science and policy; oceanographic database and marine biodiversity information management; and marine protected areas. She has co-authored several taxonomic identification guides for marine planktonic organisms including copepods and protozoans, as well as marine macroalgae and macrofauna of Kuwait.

Dr. Al-Yamani will advise Global Oceans on future proposals for mobilizing research platforms and instrumentation for studies in the Persian/Arabian Gulf regions, as well as the Sea of Oman and Northwest Arabian Sea.

Her collaboration with the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment, or ROPME (www.ropme.org), a consortium of eight member states in the Persian/Arabian Gulf region, will help facilitate this collaboration. Research capacity enabled by the Global Oceans model will contribute to supporting efforts toward protecting water quality, understanding oceanographic processes, abating pollution and protecting marine ecosystems and their rich biodiversity in the region.

Dr. Al-Yamani stated:

“ROPME conducts regional cruises in the ROPME Sea Area, involving international science teams on regional and international scientific research vessels. Several new research cruises sponsored by ROPME and other regional institutions are planned that will target important multidisciplinary studies where highly equipped ocean-going research vessels will be needed, but which are not sufficiently available.

“Utilizing its innovative model, Global Oceans is in a position to fill this infrastructure gap by regionally mobilizing and operating chartered offshore service vessels adapted with modular labs, scientific equipment and expertise that can help achieve these critical research objectives. The Global Oceans team could provide needed support for a better understanding of our marine environment.”

Dr. Al-Yamani is the science representative for Kuwait to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission at UNESCO, and as an advising scientist to the planning team for the IOC’s 2nd International Indian Ocean (IIOE-2) initiative she will also assist Global Oceans with regional collaboration efforts in filling research capacity gaps to more effectively meet the goals of the IIOE-2 science plan.

January 1, 2015 – Global Oceans recently participated in the October 2014 meeting of the Global Ocean Observing System in the Indian Ocean (IOGOOS) held in Phuket, Thailand in conjunction with the meetings of the Sustained Indian Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research Program (SIBER) and the Indian Ocean Resources Forum (IRF).

Planning for the 2nd International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2) initiative was a primary focus of the meetings, and in that context Jim Costopulos, CEO of Global Oceans delivered a presentation entitled “Mobilizing Research Platforms & Instrumentation in the Indian Ocean: An Adaptive, Collaborative Approach”.

In addition to the adaptive operational and infrastructure deployment capacity embodied in the Global Oceans model, the presentation proposed three organizational frameworks for IIOE-2 expedition development. The frameworks are designed to support iterative planning and optimized logistical efficiencies; and to strategically align research activities and collaboration to maximize scientific objectives.

Proposed expedition-originating frameworks included “time-scheduled regional expeditions” based on spatial-temporal clustering of proposed research; formation of “small institutional consortia” with operational alliances aligned with collaboration potential, regional and scientific focus and capacity building needs; and a “bottom-up process model” based on a disciplinary cross-cutting analysis of science plan activities, integrating common operational configurations and fully exploring collaborative potential.

The presentation noted that one or more of these regional framework models could persist as an organizing mechanism in the Indian Ocean basin to support a continuing expedition infrastructure capacity beyond the IIOE-2 timeframe. A continuing capacity, supported by Global Oceans’ regional- deployment vessel model, could also support a long-range research agenda extending to the Southern Ocean and Indo-Pacific regions.

Such an approach would counter a long-standing lack of manned-platform research capacity in the Indian Ocean basin and would support the research needed for a greater understanding of this increasingly critical region.

April 15, 2015 – Global Oceans is pleased to announce that Agus Budiyono, Ph.D., Foreign Professor, Department of Aerospace Information Engineering, Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea has joined the Global Oceans Science Advisory Council. Professor Budiyono earned degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is co-author of two books on unmanned systems. His research focuses on the application of frontier technologies for unmanned vehicles, such as underwater robotics designs that integrate sensor fusion technology and biologically-inspired robotic mechanisms.

Professor Budiyono is also the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems (IJIUS), published by Emerald Group in Britain, and is an Executive Editor for UNSYSdigital International Journals, which publishes a range of journals that advance the science of robotics and unmanned systems – including the Journal of Unmanned System Technology (JUST) and International Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics (IJRM). He is also co-founder and Chief Science Officer with the Indonesian-based Bhimasena Corp., a research and development company focused on building autonomous systems for deployment on land, sea and air.

In connection with his involvement with Global Oceans, Professor Budiyono stated: “There is interest in exploring ways the Global Oceans model of rapidly and adaptively configuring and deploying at-sea operational platforms can support the development of emerging autonomous vehicle and control technologies, both aerial and underwater – by enabling robust test bed environments at sea, and subsequently in experimental and routine deployments for use in ocean science. I look forward to working with Global Oceans to help establish mutually beneficial linkages with centers of new technology development globally.”

Jim Costopulos, CEO of Global Oceans stated:  “We are honored to have Professor Agus Budiyono join the Global Oceans Science Advisory Board to advise on how best to integrate and support new robotics and other technologies on future Global Oceans expeditions. An important objective of this effort is to facilitate “fast-track” integration of new technologies in research that Global Oceans is involved in supporting operationally. By being connected with the technology development cycle early on, coupled with its model of responsive operational capacity, Global Oceans hopes to catalyze use of emerging technologies in new research in ocean science.”

May 15, 2015 - Global Oceans and the JCOMM in-situ Observations Programme Support Centre (JCOMMOPS) in Brest, France, have established a collaborative agreement to jointly support the operational coordination of research and observation activities planned for the 2nd International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2), to be launched from 2015 to 2020.

The “Strategic Framework for the Implementation of IIOE-2” report prepared by the IIOE-2’s Interim Planning Committee/Group of Experts (IPC), to be submitted to the 28th Session of the Assembly of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) next month, calls for Global Oceans and JCOMMOPS to jointly assist the IPC and IIOE-2 secretariat in the development of an IIOE-2 Operational Coordination Strategy and Implementation Plan, and to establish an IIOE-2 Operational Coordination Working Group, in order to “…compile, keep track of and coordinate ongoing and planned research activities during the expedition focusing, in particular, on ship-based field work.”

The report states, “In order to aggregate, organize and coordinate the operational and logistical requirements of proposed IIOE-2 studies in a way that facilitates expeditions that are efficient, inclusive and collaborative…Global Oceans and JCOMMOPS have offered to integrate Global Oceans’ interactive, GIS-enabled expedition management system called GOCEPT (in development)…with the GIS-enabled system currently used by JCOMMOPS to manage its core ocean observations programs. User-defined forums and project modules within GOCEPT will host and archive map-enabled discussion forums on planned research activities, methodologies and resource needs, as an additional mechanism for enabling coordination and collaboration.”

To support these efforts, JCOMMOPS will share GIS map files and other geospatial metadata related to activities managed by JCOMMOPS, including future planned deployments and cruises, for integration with the GOCEPT GIS platform. A planned IIOE-2 web portal will link users to aggregated IIOE-2 expedition data on GOCEPT, which will also host archived expeditions and annotated cruise track maps; and a curated database of resources and research platforms such as ROVs and AUVs available within the science community and for charter from the private-sector.

Mathieu Belbeoch, JCOMMOPS Lead, stated:

“JCOMMOPS looks forward to collaborating with Global Oceans to help coordinate the operational needs of IIOE-2 research and observation activities in the Indian Ocean over the next six years. When JCOMMOPS initiates a cruise for ocean observation operations (generally deployment of autonomous instruments), there is often space for additional activities in transit legs, which JCOMMOPS is willing to make available to non-program scientists. In addition, our collaboration with Global Oceans will integrate ship time requests that fall outside of our operational mandate, for potential integration with Global Oceans’ expeditions. Conversely non-JCOMMOPS expeditions mobilized by Global Oceans may have capacity for helping with programme maintenance, deployments and retrievals.

JCOMMOPS supports the Global Oceans MARV (Modular Adaptive Research Vessel) model of adapting regionally chartered platforms to support multidisciplinary IIOE-2 science, complementary to participating institutional research vessels. This adaptive, needs-driven approach is one we hope will be proven as a cost-effective, collaborative strategy that could persist as a viable regional model for continuing study of the Indian Ocean into the future – and worldwide.”  

Jim Costopulos, Global Oceans CEO, stated:

“The collaboration between Global Oceans and JCOMMOPS to help develop and support an operational coordination framework for IIOE-2’s Science Plan will emphasize the establishment of online planning and collaboration tools; resource sharing to maximize use of available assets; and support for multi- and intra-disciplinary research. Global Oceans will link its GOCEPT GIS planning system with the JCOMMOPS system and to a planned IIOE-2 web portal. The integrated web portal will host aggregated, interactive, content-managed information about ongoing IIOE-2 research and emerging resource needs.

To help develop these resources, and to coordinate Global Oceans’ expeditions for IIOE-2, we plan to support a full-time Program Director focused on the Indian and Indo-Pacific Oceans, to be located in the region, working closely with the IIOE-2 International Program Office. Beyond IIOE-2, Global Oceans looks forward to working with JCOMMOPS to extend this collaboration to projects in other programs, and around the world.”

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About Global Oceans:

Global Oceans is a US-based 501c3 nonprofit organization that has developed the MARV (Modular Adaptive Research Vessel) model, designed to optimize and facilitate the use of private-sector vessels, instrumentation and operational support for ocean science research. MARVs are regionally-deployed time-chartered offshore service vessels, chartered for the duration of an expedition from a globally distributed pool of several thousand vessels; adapted with modular on-deck laboratories and mission-specific equipment; and coordinated with local port logistics support and online collaboration tools. A MARV is functionally equivalent to a dedicated research vessel. More information is at www.global-oceans.org.

About JCOMMOPS:

JCOMMOPS is the JCOMM in-situ Observations Programme Support Centre, established by the Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) in 2001. JCOMMOPS manages observational and technology requirements, operational status, and deployment logistics (by ship and air); for five core international programs within the Global Ocean Operating System (GOOS), including the OceanSITES, Argo Floats, Data Buoy Network, Ship Observation Team (SOT), and international repeat hydrography (GO-SHIP) programs. More information is at www.jcommops.org.