Milestones

Oceana, SkyTruth and Google have launched the public Beta of Global Fishing Watch, a new online technology platform that allows anyone in the world free access to monitor and track the activities of the world’s largest commercial fishing vessels in near real-time. By providing the first free global view of commercial fishing*, Global Fishing Watch delivers a powerful and unprecedented tool that can help to rebuild fish stocks and protect our oceans, which are threatened by global overfishing, illegal fishing and habitat destruction. The announcement was made in conjunction with the Our Ocean Conference in Washington, D.C., an international gathering of ocean leaders hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Advances in Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), autonomous inspection technology and the challenges posed by a sustained low oil price will be amongst the topics under the spotlight at Subsea UK’s 2016 Underwater Vehicles Conference.

AXYS Technologies (AXYS) is pleased to announce that their next generation TRIAXYS g3 wave sensor has successfully completed a series of rigorous sea trials.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper has announced that the bureau will offer approximately 47 million acres offshore Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama for oil and gas exploration and development in a lease sale that will include all available unleased areas in the Central Planning Area (CPA).

Naval Architect John Kecsmar of Ad Hoc Marine Designs is now working with Aluminium Marine Consultants (AMC) to offer a plethora of uniquely designed SWATH workboats created to satisfy any requirement.

Mr. Kecsmar possesses many decades of experience working and designing in shipyards in all things high-speed and is a proven designer of high-speed passenger ferries, patrol boats, SAR, CTVs and more.

Rob Stewart, commercial director, AMC, said: “For many years John has been conducting research on aluminium, fatigue and welding and now AMC can benefit from his expertise.”

The partnership’s next generation of SWATH windfarm boats are entirely built from aluminium and are light weight, robust and durably constructed to class and MCA regulations.

Their new advanced SWATH hull form is designed with 50% reduced coupling, 20% increased damping and an increase in 25% displacement that is tailormade for the windfarm market. Resulting in the ability to maintain service speeds of 25 knots in 2m significant wave height with extremely low motions.

Mr. Stewart said this is beyond any class required speed reduction for conventional vessels.

In addition to windfarm vessels, the SWATH design can also be used for patrol boats and fast ferries.

Additional research has resulted in an ultra-efficient hull form is used to create a super slim catamaran that requires less power than previous designs for the same speed.

Ad Hoc has also created a true hybrid of the SWATH design form called the Small Waterplane Area Catamaran (SWAC), which is a blend of a very slender hull form of a high speed catamaran with the rough water capability of a SWATH.

Aside from the SWATH hull design form, AMC specializes in the construction of other unique and novel hull forms for high speed craft with a particular emphasis on catamarans and low wash naval architecture.

Norway headquartered Kongsberg Maritime, through its US subsidiary Kongsberg Underwater Technology Inc (KUTI) announces that it has entered into a dealer agreement with Symphotic Tii Corporation for distribution of its subsea solutions in California, USA.

RJE International has been working with top Oceanography, Robotics and Engineering Programs and Universities across the U.S. for the past year. By gifting product through their Educational Program, the company has been able to aid in furthering their studies and explorations.

Subsea specialist Modus Seabed Intervention announces that it has reached a major safety milestone; having achieved over 1 million man-hours worked without an injury to personnel resulting in lost time. This significant achievement also marks over 5 years without a Lost Time Incident (LTI). The company notes that this goal has been realized as a result of a strong culture and approach to safety from all its employees, contractors and partners.

Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. (Phoenix) announces that Alexander (Jim) Robinson has joined the company as a Senior Project Manager overseeing Oil and Gas projects growth and development, safety and operational procedures, and estimating.

ASV Global, leading manufacturer of Autonomous Surface Vehicles, has expanded into the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.

Teledyne Optech is pleased to announce that Chief Scientist Dr. Viktor Feygels will attend the Oceans 16 MTS/IEEE conference in Monterey, California on September 22, to present the object-detection capability of the Optech CZMIL Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar. The presentation is titled ìMeeting the International Hydrographic Organization Requirements for Bottom Feature Detection Using the Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL)î and was co-written with Teledyne Optechís Vinod Ramnath and Brant Smith, and with Yuri Kopilevich of ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The World Ocean Council is developing a global, multi-sectoral network of Young Professionals to advance sustainable development in the next generation of ocean industry leaders.