Marine Microorganisms: Survived Mass Extinction By Leading A Double Life
Drifting across the world’s oceans are a group of unicellular marine microorganisms that are not only a crucial source of food for other marine life — but their fossils, which are found in abundance, provide scientists with an extraordinary record of climatic change and other major events in the history of the earth.
Now, planktonic foraminifera — single-celled shell building members of the marine microplankton community — have given up a secret of their very own.
A team of experts have presented remarkable evidence that planktonic foraminifera may have survived mass extinction by taking refuge on the sea floor. Dr Chris Wade from the Institute of Genetics, said: “Using genetic data we have been able to prove that the planktonic species Streptochilus globigerus and the benthic — sediment living — foraminiferan Bolivina variabilis are one and the same biological species. Moreover, geochemical evidence shows that this species actively grows within the open-ocean surface waters, thus occupying both planktonic and benthic domains. Such ecologically-flexible species are eminently suited to the recolonisation of the extinction-susceptible planktonic domain following mass extinctions events, such as the end-Cretaceous event.”
It had been thought that all modern planktic foraminifers were descended from the few lucky survivors of the meteor impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and 65 to 70 per cent of life on earth 65 million years ago. However, this might not be the case.
Dr Wade has shown that live specimens of the planktonic species Streptochilus globigerus, collected 600 miles offshore in the middle of the Arabian Sea, are genetically identical to the benthic species Bolivina variabilis, found off the coast of Kenya.
Their surprising discovery suggests that planktonic foraminifera may have survived the end Cretaceous mass-extinction by abandoning the poisonous oceans for a refuge in the relative safety of the sea-floor. When the oceans returned to normal, the survivors were able to recolonise the ocean surface once more.
The research, carried out in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Dr Kate Darling, from the University of Edinburgh, said: “If some species can switch between free-swimming and bottom-dwelling lifestyles, then it’s possible that most planktic foraminifers may have survived the late Cretaceous extinction in the sediment, not in the plankton. It seems likely that the foraminifer species which had the ability to occupy both habitats survived on the sea-floor, avoiding the meteor impact catastrophe in the oceans above.
Carrier announces big restructuring
Eimskip, one of two major seaborne carriers taking fish from Iceland to Britain and Europe, has announced a major financial shake-up to pull the company around. Eimskip has been struggling over the past year, hit by Iceland’s financial collapse and some failed acquisitions. Just two weeks ago it announced a second quarter loss of around C$480 million, making the need for a shake up all the more urgent.
The company said the objective of the reorganisation was to maximise the returns to creditors, ensure the continuation of the Icelandic and North Atlantic operations and maintain around 1,500 jobs. An initial step in the re-organisation was to safeguard the Icelandic business by transferring certain operations to Eimskip Island ehf, a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company. It is also getting out of its global cold storage business and reducing fleet capacity by selling three ships to Norway. It also invited the UK investment group Yucapia to take a financial stake in the business.
Eimskip stressed that the day-to-day operations of its core North Atlantic container shipping and refrigerated logistics (including fish) and payments to trade suppliers will be unaffected.
Eimskip president and chief executive Gylfi Sigfusson, said the main goal will be continue to provide service in Iceland, the North Atlantic, the Faroe Islands and Norway.
An Interview with Oskar Axelsson
Marport’s Executive VP and General Manager, Commercial Fisheries
During a recent visit to Seattle, we had the opportunity to catch up with Oskar and ask him a few questions concerning Marport’s acquisition of C-Tech and how he thinks it will impact the company’s activities in the Commercial Fisheries sector.
Webmaster: Good morning, and thanks for taking the time to chat with us today.
Oskar: Good morning to you. It’s my pleasure.
Webmaster: Perhaps we can start by asking what you think about Marport’s recent acquisition of C-Tech Ltd.?
Oskar: I think this is an excellent acquisition for Marport. While Commercial Fisheries is and will remain very important to us, we plan to continue with the diversification of our Software Defined Sonar® technology into new domains – including Underwater Defence, Offshore Energy and Ocean Science. Over the past 12 years, Marport has grown from a one person, one product company, to a global company with over 110 employees and nearly 100 different products. By my estimation, we now rank in the Top 5 multi-domain sonar companies in the world.
Webmaster: Have you had any involvement with C-Tech prior to the acquisition?
Oskar: Yes, as a matter of fact I’ve known C-Tech from the time that they made sonars for the commercial fishing market – this would be around the late 1970’s. During this period, I was working as a marine electronics service technician on the east coast of Iceland. I recall being very impressed with C-Tech’s sonar technology. They were the first in the world to build omni sonars that integrated micro-processors and an electronic display – while their competitors of that time were only searchlight sonars that used paper recorders. There’s no doubt that C-Tech led the commercial fisheries omni sonar market in innovation and product excellence. I think it was a very unfortunate setback for commercial fisheries when C-Tech decided to exit the industry because of the unethical copying of its products. Of course, C-Tech went on to create and build a very successful business in the military sonar market.
Webmaster: Do you see any role for C-Tech in future products for commercial fisheries?
Oskar: Definitely. We acquired C-Tech for several important reasons – the ability to quickly enter the underwater defence industry, as well as to leverage the synergies in our technology and product platforms. As many of your readers know, Marport has been making significant R&D investments in developing our Software Defined Sonar® technology. We have already successfully launched the industry’s first software defined sensors and will be releasing the 2nd generation of this technology – codenamed DataSquid® – later this year.
During the upcoming World Fishing Exhibition in Vigo, we also plan to release CARUSO, our new multi-beam sounder/profiler. CARUSO is another excellent example of broadband, software-defined technology and we expect it to be very successful. We already have orders for over 25 units – and while the hardware is ready we have decided to take some more time to finalize the software.
CARUSO will operate on what we call CommandView 4 – a 4D software application. We’ve been doing a lot of research into medical imaging techniques and believe that CARUSO will be the first of a new series of marine products that embody our trademark – Seeing with Sound®.
This means that sounder and sonar visualization techniques will migrate from the “look and feel” of standard echograms – that the fishing industry has seen for decades – to a graphically rich, real-world environment that uses acoustic imaging for picture-centric situational awareness. We’re really breaking new ground with this type of software – and we expect that the CV4 software architecture will enable us to rapidly deploy new solutions in all our market domains.
Regarding C-Tech, we are also very seriously considering re-packaging C-Tech’s existing Omni Sonar® products for re-entry into commercial fisheries market. When married with our Software Defined Sonar® electronics we could deliver a very innovative Integrated Sonar System.
Webmaster: What exactly is an Integrated Sonar System?
Oskar: Our thinking on this is quite clear. We know that we now have the technology, production capability, build quality and service/support infrastructure to immediately enter and compete with the existing omni sonars from Norway and Japan. However, competing on the same old playing field is not very compelling or interesting – we believe we need to incorporate break-through innovation that enables our customers to significantly enhance their performance and increase their operational effectiveness. To that point, in this month’s edition of Fishing News International there was a news story on the new F/V Nordborg – perhaps the world’s most advanced fishing vessel. In that article, Captain Jon Rasmussen discussed testing new gear and sharing innovative ideas with us. Innovation is a Marport hallmark and we want to continue this tradition.
As such, the Integrated Sonar Suite incorporates every acoustic element needed for Commercial Fishing – wireless net sensors and sounders, trawl mounted sonars, single and split beam hull mounted sounders, doppler current profilers and omni sonars – and all elements are seamlessly linked via an open architecture network. Marport would be the first in the industry to eliminate single function “stovepipe” marine electronics design and deliver a truly integrated system for deep sea and coastal fishing.
Webmaster: So what’s missing from your product line-up to deliver the Integrated Sonar System?
Oskar: We expect to have every component in place within the next 6 – 8 months. As I mentioned earlier, we have significant expertise in reconfigurable embedded systems – such as our broadband, software defined net sensors. We already have a series of wireless net sounders. With the C-Tech acquisition we now have significant expertise and capabilities in omni sonar. Later this year we will start shipping CARUSO our multibeam sounder/profiler.
Products currently under development include two new trawl sonars – one is a high frequency omni, while the other is a high resolution side scan imaging sonar based upon our AquaPix® technology. Both of these products are compact, phased array sonars and do not have any moving parts. We expect them to be very well received in the market.
Webmaster: Do you have any other new Commercial Fishing products under development?
Oskar: We always have new products under development (laughs). Seriously though, in addition to the two new trawl sonars, our engineers are working hard on a new speed sensor that uses doppler velocity profiling to replace electro-magnetic techniques. We also have ongoing R&D in high speed underwater wireless acoustic communications and trawl positioning technologies. I’d also like to say that we always encourage customer feedback to our existing product designs and try to incorporate that feedback whenever possible. Essentially, we build industrial tools for professional industrial customers. While some others in the commercial fishing industry want to continue to build single function devices – and then lecture customers on how to use them – we have taken a more open business approach to let our customers know the various ways that a product can be used. For example, if you make and sell hammers, you don’t need to tell a professional carpenter how to use it (smile).
Webmaster: That all sounds like very interesting business approach and technology. What are your plans regarding production for Commercial Fisheries products?
Oskar: Good question. Today, we have assembly operations in France and Seattle. And that has worked very well for us over the past few years. However, our sales in Commercial Fisheries are significantly increasing and with this sales growth we face production challenges. So our plan is to transfer final assembly of most of our Commercial Fisheries products to C-Tech’s facility in Canada. That 40,000 square foot facility is ISO 9001:2000 certified and can easily scale production to meet our needs. The plant has very impressive onsite testing capabilities as well as an offsite Underwater Acoustic Test Range with quiet water for testing acoustic sensors, sounders and sonars.
Webmaster: We have many more questions for you – but also realize that you are a busy man. So, we’ll conclude our interview and say thanks so much for spending some time with us today.
Oskar: No problem, it was my pleasure. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our customers for their continued encouragement and support – particularly the deep sea captains, fleet managers and owners who contribute their valuable time to test and provide important feedback on the development of our new products. We consider them as part of the Marport team and it with their input we will continue to innovate.
Marport’s Software Defined Sonar® Profiled By Marine Technology Reporter
Marport Software Defined Sonar® has been profiled in the June 2009 Marine Technology Reporter’s Future Tech edition.
Marine Technology Reporter is the world’s largest audited circulation magazine to cover the marine technology market. It’s become a highly regarded industry publication and acts as a resource guide for companies, government agencies, research institutions and universities seeking product and service providers.
Marport’s Software Defined Sonar (SDS) technology replaces conventional, hardware-centric sonar systems with one common platform composed of programmable components that are controlled by software. With SDS technology, a single hardware platform handles many different sonar functions – the platform is easily reconfigured to change its specific function as needed. The technology improves sonar functionality, enhances signal processing and substantially reduces costs – all while replacing racks of legacy sonar equipment.
The June 2009 edition of MTR can be accessed at: http://dwp.marinelink.com/pubs/nwm/mt/200906/
Russia Will Protect Interests in Arctic: Official
Russia will defend its interests in the Arctic amid the race for the region’s energy riches, a Russian official said June 10, while dismissing the possibility of open conflict over the far north.
“We will protect our interests in the future, but I don’t see that it will lead to a conflict in the near future,” said Artur Chilingarov, the Kremlin’s representative for international cooperation in the Arctic and Antarctic.
“We will build up our scientific, economic and research interest in the Arctic, but not our military,” he told reporters in Moscow.
Moscow raised the stakes this year in the diplomatic tug-of-war with the four other Arctic states – Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States – by declaring plans to station more troops in Russia’s northern regions by 2020.
Chilingarov, a celebrated polar explorer and lawmaker, himself spearheaded a highly-publicized expedition in 2007 to plant the Russian flag on the Arctic seabed in a not-too-subtle demonstration of Russia’s territorial ambitions.
Interest in the economic exploitation of the Arctic has increased in recent years as the melting of the polar icecap means easier access to oil reserves. The Arctic likely holds 30 percent of the world’s untapped gas and about 13 percent of its oil, a U.S. geological survey published last month in Science magazine said.
“Everyone has their own national interests. I’ll say again that Russia’s interests in the far north, in the Arctic Ocean, are tied to the region’s economic potential for Russia: gas, oil, gold, diamonds,” Chilingarov said.
“These are all in Russia’s economic interests and we will protect them.”
Moscow has lodged a claim with a United Nations commission on a huge swath of Arctic seabed, arguing that the underwater Lomonosov Ridge, a geological structure which stretches across much of the pole, is a continuation of its continental shelf.
Navies Exploring New Ways to Employ Underwater Robots
Underwater robots have become essential tools in non-military missions such as the exploration of the oceans and offshore oil drilling. Many navies now want to capitalize on the available technology and deploy robotic vehicles — not just remotely operated vehicles but also more advanced systems that can execute missions autonomously.
The objective is to deploy Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV) – such as Marport’s SQX-1 vehicle – that can find buried mines, conduct seabed mapping, and help to protect coastal areas from underwater attacks.
Many navies have designed and tested a number of UUVs, but have yet to begin producing them in large quantities. Officials in charge of UUV development programs are continuing to evaluate technologies and test prototypes until they can determine what systems best meet the needs of the fleet. For navies, UUVs represent a chance to free sailors from “dull, dirty and dangerous” tasks that could be performed by robotics.
Some navies have begun employing UUVs in applications for shallow water mine warfare, oceanography and special warfare support. Future evaluations will include UUVs that carry more advanced sensors and can be operated from surface ships as well as from shore.
A major shortfall with many older generation UUVs is their outdated information-processing technology and lack of an “open architecture” that allow easy sensor upgrades for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
Marport’s SQX-1 uses an open architecture system design, and the sensor payloads are controlled by our Software Defined Sonar technology, which enables the Marport vehicle to be a mission reconfigurable UUV. Research and development work is continuing on signal processing algorithms and advanced sensors that would enable the SQX-1 to become cognitive and adaptive – thus enhancing its autonomy and operational independence.
Navies have only just begun to scratch the surface of the utility of UUVs, but there is clear recognition of benefits that UUVs bring to the underwater battlespace. Marport is continuing to work hard to position itself as a leading UUV supplier in this exciting growth industry.
Marport Bids Farewell To A Friend
Jeff Wheeler died after his motorcycle struck a car Saturday afternoon in Naramata, British Columbia.
This past weekend, Marport lost a fervent supporter. We also lost a good friend.
He was known as a Good Samaritan – and in fact – Jeff Wheeler was returning home from a conference for small conservation charities when his motorcycle collided with a car.
Jeff, aged 40, died as a result of injuries he sustained this past Saturday near his home of Naramata, British Columbia. He was rushed to Penticton Regional Hospital, where he eventually succumbed to his injuries. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have ruled out speed and alcohol as factors in the accident. The driver of the other vehicle did not sustain any injuries.
Jeff had a sharp business mind which took him into the world of finance and investment banking, most recently as a senior executive with Manulife Financial. While his work often involved significant travel, he kept a deep passion for his home and his family. Jeff’s top priority was always his wife, Laurie, and three daughters. He thrived on adventures with his family and always made a place for events that involved both family and friends.
Jeff will be greatly missed.
Marport Releases White Paper on Software Defined Sonar for the Underwater Battlespace
Today Marport released its latest white paper entitled Software Defined Sonar for the Network Centric Underwater Battlespace.
A major naval challenge is occurring in the undersea environment. Command of the seas depends on achieving and maintaining undersea superiority. In littoral waters and maritime chokepoints, this requires an ability to counter underwater mines, while in deeper waters the ability to counter submarines is paramount.
Future multi-dimensional maritime battle networks will likely include undersea combat networks. This will require that allied navies develop deployable undersea combat networks, consisting of surface vessels, submarines, small manned underwater vehicles, autonomous underwater vehicles and deployable sonar and sensor arrays, all operating in a network-centric underwater battlespace. These new requirements call for a robust and sustained undersea warfare research and development effort. Accordingly, navies should begin a concerted R&D program for these types of systems, as well as a new generation of littoral anti-submarine sonar systems.
Marport is a world leader in the design and development of Software Defined Sonar – a broadband, multimode sonar technology platform that uses programmable digital processors to provide the features needed for next generation underwater sensing, surveillance and communication applications.
Being a genuine broadband, multimode sonar system, Software Defined Sonar is not restricted to operation on a single frequency or proprietary transducers. As such, it can serve a wide variety of legacy sonar applications and can support rapid development and deployment of novel sonar solutions. The flexibility of the system’s software configurable “sonar computer” allows users to dynamically tune the transceiver from 1 kHz to 1.25 MHz. The system increases underwater tactical capability, improves functionality, enhances signal processing and substantially reduces costs – all while replacing racks of legacy sonar equipment.
The White Paper (in PDF format) can be downloaded by clicking the following link: Software Defined Sonar for the Network Centric Underwater Battlespace
Marport Engineer Presents AUV Paper at IEEE Oceans Conference in Bremen
David Shea, a Marport AUV design engineer, recently presented a paper entitled “Prototype Development of the SQX-1 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle”. The paper’s abstract stated:
“As a leading provider of high-performance underwater acoustic technology, Marport is introducing to market next-generation sonar systems based on their advanced Software Defined Sonar (SDS) signal processing system. Seeking a demonstration platform for these new systems, Marport investigated existing Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology, and identified a opportunity to develop an innovative new vehicle; the SQX-1 AUV.
The SQX-1 is a compact, lightweight AUV designed for search and survey applications in coastal waters up to 500 metres in depth. Employing a unique propulsion and control concept based on thrust vectoring, the SQX-1 is passively stable in pitch and roll, and features high manoeuvrability with capabilities such as hovering, and a zero-turning radius. Desiring a short to market lead-time, and necessitated by the unique features of the design, a rapid prototyping methodology was applied to the SQX-1 design cycle. The first phase of the design cycle dictates production of an “Alpha” prototype, developed to evaluate full-scale vehicle characteristics and to demonstrate the unique propulsion and control system. The development of this prototype and its key features are presented in this paper.”
David advises that over 40 people attended his presentation, and had plenty of questions. The SQX-1 generated a lot of interest, especially from the technical community. Most of the other AUV’s presented and discussed were “traditional torpedo designs”, so the Marport vehicle was definitely a point of much discussion.
David’s paper (in PDF format) can be downloaded by clicking the following link Prototype Development of the SQX-1 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.
Marport Congratulates Hvalnes P/F on arrival of Nordborg
Marport Deep Sea Technologies extends congratulations and best wishes to Hvalnes P/F upon the arrival of their newest vessel, the F/V Nordborg to the Faroe Islands.
The 83.5m long purse seiner/pelagic trawler is one of the most advanced fishing vessels in the world. The vessel is arranged with RSW hold capacity of 1.230m3 and two freezing holds optimised for pallets with a capacity of 2,500m3. The design is optimised for onboard production with a freezing capacity of more than 200 tonnes of herring fillet per day. All of the waste is utilized in a separate fishmeal factory. The hull is designed to achieve good sea characteristics, and limiting the noise onboard the vessel has been an important factor, giving a better working environment and comfort for the crew.
Accommodation is arranged for 30 people, and the vessel has been fitted with the most modern electronics, communication and fish-finding equipment – including Marport sensors.
The vessel is arranged to fish for herring, mackerel, capelin and blue whiting and is equipped with separate deck equipment for trawling and for purse seining. It will operate mainly on the fishing grounds around the Faroe Islands, the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean as well as the maritime zones around Iceland and the Barents Sea.
