Author: Emily Boddy

SUT – COVID 2019 Statement

SUT & COVID-19, Update 17th March 2020 

COVID-19 is now active in several of the countries where SUT conducts events, holds training courses and has meetings for members. We have advised our committees and special interest groups to meet online rather than in person, and in the UK, for example, most events have been postponed or will be held online. We will quickly develop virtual events such as online seminars and lectures so that our work of transferring knowledge to our members and the public can continue during the coronavirus outbreak. 

We will continue to review our activities to take account of the developing situation. In the UK most staff are working from home and can be contacted by their usual email address and mobile numbers. Branches should similarly review their activities to take into account the level of risk advised by local authorities & health professionals. 

Where delegates are attending any SUT activities that are still ‘in person’ and are traveling from areas with active COV-19 outbreaks, local organisers will ask for documentation stating that the delegate has been isolated from sources of infection before the agreement can be given for them to attend the course/event in person.

Please check the SUT news page on a regular basis for updates. 

Steve Hall, CEO SUT 

SUT policy as of 5th March 2020:

In view of the current Coronavirus outbreak, and taking note of the UK Government’s present level of advice, SUT events, training courses and conferences will be reviewed on a constant basis by the CEO & staff to take account of the developing situation. Branches should similarly review their activities to take into account the level of risk advised by the authorities & health professionals.

Staff, SUT Members & delegates will not be expected to place themselves at any risk of exposure to infection over that incurred by the public at large in day-to-day activities, and if HM Government requests that citizens self-isolate, and avoid public gatherings, we will comply and either postpone such events or seek to provide them in an online manner where appropriate. 

Where delegates are attending SUT events, conferences and courses & traveling from areas with active COV-19 outbreaks, e.g. Northern Italy, China, South Korea & Iran at present, we will ask for documentation stating that the delegate has been isolated from sources of infection before an agreement can be given for them to attend the course/event in person.

This advice will be reviewed and updated as the outbreak develops.

Steve Hall, CEO SUT 

Dr John Bevan, 19 December 1943 – 3 February 2020

Our dear friend and member of SUT since 1969, Dr John Bevan, passed away on 3rd February 2020 after a long battle with cancer, and leaves an extraordinary legacy for the underwater science community. John had served SUT as Chair of our Diving & Manned Submersibles committee for many years, making a major contribution to diving safety through the Committee’s close working relationship with the Health & Safety Executive and the diving medicine & hyperbaric medicine community. Dr Bevan was a much-loved mentor, a repository of knowledge and history, and had also served SUT as Honorary Secretary and Member of Council. He was a recipient of the prestigious Houlder Cup for services to diving in 2002, and had been a Fellow of SUT since before our electronic records began.

John’s wide range of contacts from the breadth of the diving community brought SUT diving members from marine archaeology, film and TV, salvage and underwater contracting, military divers, recreational divers and the safety & medical community – his is the only SUT Committee where members might in the last 24 hours have been filming a scene for a James Bond movie, treating a patient in a recompression chamber, recovering a sunken helicopter, carrying out a survey of a coral reef, welding a broken structure, training new divers or searching drowned bronze-age settlements for artefacts. John’s wide range of interests encapsulated all that makes SUT special – a broad community united in their interest in underwater technology, and eager to learn from one another.

John chairing a meeting of the Diving & Manned Submersibles Committee, HQS Wellington 2017

Outside SUT John had a prolific output as an author, manager of his company Submex, editor of ‘Underwater Contractor International’ magazine and more. He was the Founding Chairman of the Historical Diving Society in 1990, & one of the founders of Gosport’s Diving Museum. His books included ‘Commander Crabb – What Really Happened?’; ‘Crabbgate’; ‘The development of the diving helmet and dress in the UK during the 19th century’; and the esteemed ‘The Professional Divers Handbook’ – the industry-standard text for professional hard-hat divers.

John’s historical interests stretched to guiding enthusiasts around little known corners of London on the ‘historical diving pub tour’ of legend.

John’s professional life was extremely busy, and impressive. After a BSc in Zoology & Physiology from the University of London in 1967 he undertook a Masters in the neurophysiology of deep diving in 1970, having joined the Royal Naval Scientific Service. During his time as a Ministry of Defence Scientist he established a world deep-diving record in a hyperbaric chamber of 457m, approximately 1500 feet, some 90m deeper that had been thought possible and described at the time as the ‘hyperbaric Moon landing’. His further qualifications included Royal Navy Ship’s Diver, Saturation Life-Support Supervisor, multiple BSAC qualifications at the highest level, 100 hours diving time in submersibles including the Pisces & Mantis class, time in observation bells and the ‘Jim’ atmospheric diving suit. He used most of the diving systems known to humankind including SCUBA, rebreather, military spec, free-flow helmet, closed circuit, hot-water & electrically heated suits & had dived all over the world.

John breaking the deepest dive record during his Royal Naval Scientific Service days

After leaving the Royal Naval Scientific Service he worked for Comex then Comex-John Brown before setting up Submex Ltd in 1976, where John specialised in construction, inspection, maintenance, diving incident and accident investigation, repair, ROV operations, wreck investigation, salvage, cable burial, film production, expert witness and training. Quite a list!

He achieved his doctorate in 1990 on the development of diving equipment, demonstrating his fascination with the evolution of technology over the years and detailed expert knowledge. John would often demonstrate historical equipment, and visitors to the Diving Museum in Gosport can be assured of a fascinating experience as they see at first hand equipment covering the history of human diving.

John’s family were key parts of his own life-support system and his wife Ann has played a key role in helping John develop the Historical Diving Society. SUT Members wishing to honour John’s memory are invited to make any donations via www.facebook.com/theHDS

We’ll be joining forces with others from the diving community later in the year to celebrate John’s life and achievements, and give thanks for his service to our Society, our Country, and to the safety of all who work beneath the waves. Those who met him were amazed at his modesty and quiet nature, in the light of the magnitude of his achievements. I enjoyed learning from him, as he recounted extraordinary adventures in the Welsh accent he retained throughout his life. We were honoured to know him and count him as one of our own.

Steve Hall, CEO SUT February 2020

SUT London AGM 2019

SUT had an enjoyable AGM at Trinity House on the evening of Monday 16th December. We announced our new members of Council, Terry Griffiths & Julie Morgan of Perth, Australia, Branch; Professor Frank Lim of China Branch; and Bob MacDonald from the UK.
Dr Philomene Verlaan received her Fellowship of SUT in recognition of her services to to the scientific understanding, legal status and policy development in support of deep seafloor mineral resources. We also announced Fellow status of Martin Harley of Aberdeen, Sarah Elkhatib of Perth, and Kerry Campbell and Tricia Hill in the the USA Branch.
The Houlder Cup for outstanding contribution to diving or underwater operators was awarded to Dr Philip Bryson for his long term contribution to diving medicine and the emergency treatment of divers, and our Oceanography Award went to Professor Penny Holliday of the UK National Oceanography Centre for her contribution to sustained ocean observations in the north east Atlantic and her strong advocacy for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Our President’s Award was made to Ian Wilson of our Perth Branch in recognition of his extensive contribution to the underwater engineering industry, culminating in the establishment of subsea engineering as a chartered area of practice within Engineers Australia’s Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) accreditation.
We also announced that SUT is launching an Ocean Patrons scheme for members who are able to offer an enhanced level of contribution to support our charitable objectives. The patron levels are:

  • Atlantic – From £25 per month / £300 per annum
  • Indian – From £50 per month / £600 per annum
  • Pacific – From £100 per month / £1200 per annum

Our patrons will receive :

  •   SUT Membership
  •   Invitation to an annual Patron’s Event
  •   Certification
  •   Prominent listing on annual report & website
  •   Patrons Logo for exclusive use
  •   …and more, get in touch with our London office to learn more
Finally Mark Beattie-Edwards, CEO of the Nautical Archaeology Society, gave an excellent presentation on the story of the exploration of the wreck of the warship ‘London’ (1665) in the Thames Estuary, which could be the Mary Rose of the 21st century. We thank Trinity House for their splendid venue, our members for turning up on a wet December evening in spite of industrial action by one of the local rail companies, and our London staff who helped ensure an enjoyable and productive evening was had by all.

SUT CEO Newsletter December 2019

Dear members – I started drafting this newsletter from a conference centre in Hainan Province, China in late October, where I was honoured to be the second speaker in a celebration of 40 years of the Chinese Society of Oceanography, in front of hundreds of delegates. Why was the SUT invited (and our expenses covered by my hosts)? Because the audience wanted to know about innovation, advances in ocean technology, energy security, how China fits into the rapidly-evolving world of subsea technology – and the SUT is seen as an international, unbiased, high-quality provider of knowledge on a wide range of ocean technology subjects including the systems required for offshore energy production, fossil and renewable, about marine autonomous systems, seabed resources, the interface between academia & industry, and about the need for advances in the policy and legal aspects of offshore operations. We are rightly seen as first & foremost a Learned Society rather than a Trade Body, and as having a significant global presence.

SUT China branch students with Chair Professor Frank Lim

It was clear from the talk before mine that China worries about being reliant on overseas sources for hydrocarbons. They want to develop unconventional fuel resources such as gas hydrates, which are abundant within their exclusive economic zone, and to produce hydrogen and renewable energy on a vast scale. SUT’s branch in China, chaired by Professor Frank Lim, is seeing progress in making new connections across a broad cross-section of the Chinese marine technology community especially within the postgraduate students and early-career people there – and I expect that in future years the bulk of growth of the SUT will occur in Asia, especially as energy transition & marine robotics takes offshore industry into new directions.

In November the SUT were in China again as guests of Reed Exhibitions, with a leading role at Oceanology China in Shanghai, in particular to support the unmanned systems strand in the conference programme, which I chaired. It was good to see familiar faces from Western manufacturers and service companies, plus the keen new entrants into our sector from east Asia. The SUT also jointly hosted a ‘Happy Hour’ at the event with our friends from the Marine Technology Society, and we were honoured to be asked to present prizes to the young winners of school & college technology competitions.

Keeping with this international theme, in the same week as Oceanology China, the ADIPEC event was on in Abu Dhabi and for the first time the new SUT Middle East Branch had a stand, provided at no cost by the hosts. Branch Chair Adrian Phillips and his team of volunteers did a great job raising awareness of SUT, and I’m pleased to report that the Branch is growing well, and promises to be a major new presence in the region, reinforcing my belief that Asia will be core in our future growth. A couple of weeks beforehand Adrian had kindly presented a paper on developments in marine autonomous systems that I had submitted to IMarEST for their defence marine technology event in Oman. I was unable to attend as I had been asked to present a civilian technology foresight report to the European Marine Board at their Berlin conference, so Adrian was able to step in and ensure that SUT will be featured in the Oman Conference Proceedings and raise our profile in the region.

We were also invited to present work on advances in underwater technology to DNV-GL in Oslo in October, sharing the venue with the likes of Jimmy Wales the founder of Wikipedia, Hans Vestberg, the CEO of Verizon, & Erna Solberg, the Prime Minister of Norway – evidence that although the SUT isn’t a large Society, our reputation for excellence and as a source of expert knowledge is spreading, and that we are in demand from people who want to know more about what our sector is doing, and is capable of doing in the future to meet the challenges of sustainable, clean energy production, access to minerals, and access to marine food resources.

Now, I’m not an expert on all of these fields and can’t be on the road all the time, so as we enter 2020 I’ll be looking for additional volunteers who we can ask to speak of behalf of SUT at events such as the ones mentioned above – it will be good to have a roster of enthusiasts we can call upon to celebrate and share the advances our community is making in a wider range of fields, and enhances the value and reputation of SUT membership.

Branches and Committees

At the salvage & wreck removal workshop in Glasgow in October

Within the UK our Branches carried out a full programme of events, as did several of our Committees and Special Interest Groups. The International Salvage and Decommissioning group delivered a well-attended salvage and wreck removal workshop in Glasgow as part of the Marine Association of Science & Technology Scotland (MASTS) annual science meeting, OSIG hosted their annual Geoforum in Bristol, and the Education Committee delivered lectures in schools and colleges. Aberdeen Branch excelled as they so often do on a very well attended schools’ event at Aberdeen’s Music Hall in November, jointly hosted a ‘Future Subsea Digital Toolbox’ event with the Hydrographic Society in Scotland and IMCA, as well as their regular daytime and evening events including unexploded ordnance detection & disposal, & subsea power systems. Aberdeen also hosted the most Subsea Awareness Courses that we have been able to deliver for quite a few years, evidence of growing confidence and investment returning to North Sea operators.  Newcastle focussed on future offshore marine energy industries and marine plastics in their autumn schedule, and London & Southern England covered a wide range of subjects including John Englander on Sea Level Rise, Philomene Verlaan on Deep Sea Mining, and Chris Baldwin on the NATO submarine rescue service. There was a fun-filled quiz night held at the Ye Olde Watling on 19th November and the South West Chapter looked at ship-based robotics. The SUT Plus groups were also active, with an event on ‘subsea operations – diver or diverless?’, held at Aberdeen’s Maritime Museum on 21st November.

Robo-shark biomimetic AUV on display at Hainan meeting, late October.

Singapore held evening technical meetings and an evening social event, Perth delivered a multitude of daytime and evening events including their respected AUT Conference at the end of October and a number of social events including those for their young engineers and scientists group, ‘YES!’.

SUT in the US have delivered another full season of activities ranging from training events and technical evenings to their popular social gatherings and awards of student scholarships.

LSE branch pub quiz at Ye Olde Watling

In the last week of November our latest embryonic branch, St John’s Newfoundland held their first meeting, with a keynote from Professor Neil Bose of Memorial University, who also chairs the SUT Panel on Underwater Robotics.

Training, and Professional Accreditation

When I last wrote I said that we were working on introducing Professional Accreditation for SUT Members by licensing IMarEST’s Chartered Marine Technologist scheme, in a scheme that will be launched simultaneously by the Marine Technology Society. Most of the details are in place, and the scheme is ready to roll out, and on 23rd December we will formally issue our first batch of invitations to apply to become Chartered, with relevant documents such as handbooks and instructions to be placed on our website in the Members Area. I’ve asked for half a dozen volunteers to form the first cohort of SUT members to go through the accreditation system and if you’d like to be added to their number please contact me directly at [email protected] – the first few people will receive a discount on professional accreditation fees as we will of course be ‘learning the ropes’ as we work with them, and if the pilot is successful we will roll on professional registration on a larger scale during the second half of 2020, and eventually be able to offer Chartered Marine Engineer and Chartered Marine Scientist in addition to the initial Chartered Marine Technologist. We also have the option of launching sub-classifications such as CMarTech (ROV) or CMarTech (pipelines) etc. as the scheme develops.

Educational Support Fund

We awarded new scholarships to Andrew Robinson of the University of New England, USA, and to Alicia McDowall of the Scottish Association of Marine Science in Oban. Both were superb candidates, there being a very high standard of applicants. Alicia’s scholarship has, with the agreement of his family, been named in honour of our good friend and Council Member Chris Milner who passed away unexpectedly in the summer.

In future we hope to be able to expand the number of scholarships that SUT HQ is able to support, especially as some of branches – in particular the USA Branch – have a terrific record of student sponsorship. Alongside the publication of our Journal, our interaction with the next generation is key to maintaining our charitable status (& not for profit status in other jurisdictions) so maintaining sound scholarship programmes based on high quality students is a very important part of what the SUT exists to do.

SUT-MTS Exploratory Committee

As previously advised, SUT signed a memorandum of agreement with the Marine Technology Society earlier in 2019 and already this has born fruit, with a solid relationship being built on jointly developing the professional accreditation system with IMarEST, co-chairing of sessions in the Oceanology International Conference Programme and putting people in contact with each other. Following the SUT’s 24th October Council permission was given to our President Professor Ralph Rayner to attend the meeting of the MTS Board in the USA during the Oceans 19 Conference, and following from that we have now agreed to form a working group of senior members from the Council/Board of both societies to explore more options about how we gain better than the sum of our two parts by working more closely together. Where these discussions eventually lead will become clearer once each Society has a more complete understanding of one another’s strengths, weaknesses and aspirations – members will be kept fully informed on progress.

Here’s the joint letter drafted by the Presidents of SUT & MTS for circulation to all members:

Joint MTS & SUT Member Communication
Message from Professor Ralph Rayner, SUT President

(issued same date by MTS President Rick Spinrad to MTS members)

SUT Members

We are at an important inflection point in the world of marine science, engineering, and technology as there is more global attention than ever on a wide array of issues, including the Blue Economy and sustainable ocean development. Our members and our Society have an important role to play in the way the ocean is studied and used.

To that end, I want to let you know that the Society for Underwater Technology and the Marine Technology Society have formed an exploratory joint committee to investigate new partnership models between our two Societies that would benefit our members and the wider community.

Both Societies were founded in the mid-1960s and have roughly the same number of members who focus on a variety of marine technologies and aspects of ocean science and engineering. While SUT is based in London and has approximately half of the membership based in the UK, MTS is based in the US and has its largest membership in the United States. Both Societies have international Sections/Branches in areas that complement each other, only Houston having significant overlap. While we have different corporate models, the mission and objectives of our respective organizations are highly complementary.

Many of you have invested much in the Society over the years, and I want to assure you that our goal is to recognize the history, reputation, and work of both Societies as we explore future partnership models. It will be the work of the joint exploratory committee to consider all aspects with no foregone conclusions about the nature of the product or recommendations that this committee will produce.

We expect the committee to begin their deliberations and assessments early this winter and formulate their findings and recommendations over the next year.  The full membership of both societies will be afforded opportunities to engage and provide comment to the committee and the societies’ respective leadership bodies. You can expect regular updates about our progress.

The committee includes:

David Saul (SUT Exploratory Committee Co-Chair)

Mick Cook (SUT)

Dave Brookes (SUT)

Richard Crout (MTS Exploratory Committee Co-Chair)
Andrew Clark (MTS)

Mike Pinto (MTS)

In the next few months, the committee will work together to dig deep into the structures, programs, and finances of the two Societies. In the meantime, please direct your feedback to myself, Ralph Rayner [email protected] or MTS President, Rick Spinrad, [email protected] . Email us with any thoughts, concerns, suggestions, or questions you have. We value your input.

Annual General Meeting of SUT

On 16th December we’ll be holding our AGM at Trinity House once again, and I’m looking forward to meeting members, welcoming our new Members of Council and awarding certificates to our prize winners and new Fellows. We have an excellent talk lined up from our colleagues at the Nautical Archaeological Society, and it promises to be a fun, inspirational and educational evening for all.

In Memoriam

Sir Anthony Laughton FRS

We were sad that learn that our former SUT President, Sir Anthony Laughton FRS, had passed away at the end of September at the ripe old age of 92. I worked for him 1997-2002 when he was Steering Committee Chair of the pioneering NERC Autosub Science Missions programme, and on hearing of his ill health had written to Tony a few weeks before his death, thanking him for his service to SUT as well as my personal thanks for his mentorship and guidance.

Former SUT Chair & President Professor Gwyn Griffiths writes:

“From his earliest days at the National Institute of Oceanography in Wormley, which he joined in 1955, Tony Laughton had an affinity for technology. In the mid 1950s he devised a deep-sea camera, deployed on the end of a wire lowered from a ship, that, when a weight on a line touched the seafloor would trigger a flash, take the photograph and advance the 35mm film. Later versions, designed with Dickie Dobson, added a shutter for use in shallower water where there could be ambient light, and a photocell to detect whether there was sufficient light reflected for a decent photograph.

Tony’s science needed greater repeatability in depth soundings than provided by the mechanical governors in the echo-sounders of the time. He introduced crystal controlled timing, leading to the Precision Echo Sounder. Less well-known was his invention of a Continuous Profile Recorder, a small display of the full depth range to complement the 400 fathom window on the main display. This must have been a boon to heavy-eyed watchkeepers who might lose track of the “phase” – that is, the depth to add to the main display.

His instruments were used beyond science. For example, in 1963 (or 1964), he took a Precision Echo Sounder, deep-sea camera and corer to the Luzon Strait to survey a new telephone cable route for Cable and Wireless, finding hazards including high currents at the seabed and outcrops of sandstone.

His scientific observations were key in developing the understanding of plate tectonics, as his team discovered that the seabed rocks either side of the mid Atlantic ridge displayed different magnetic properties in a symetrical pattern, providing solid evidence of sea floor spreading.

He became Director of the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory in 1978, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1980 and was knighted for his services to marine science in 1987. Tony had a long involvement with SUT, serving as our President in 1996-7.

After his retirement he was succeeded as IOSDL Director by Colin Summerhayes, who also later served as SUT President.

When, in 1997, the Natural Environment Research Council sought a steering committee Chair for the Autosub Science Missions programme, Tony Laughton was an inspired choice. At a time when autonomous scientific submersibles might have turned out to be a mere technical curiosity, Tony’s appointment sent a clear and confident message that excellent science was to be the principle outcome. And as then President of the Society for Underwater Technology he epitomised the productive bridging of marine technology and science.

Under his leadership the steering committee proposed a portfolio of projects that took Autosub from the North Sea to the Antarctic. The science outcomes from a community of researchers with the ideas to exploit Autosub made possible today’s NERC fleet of some 40 autonomous vehicles”

Sir Anthony’s legacy lives on in the marine robotics community, the geophysics community and even on charts of the Atlantic Ocean, where numerous features were named by Tony and his colleagues in an era where a certain light-heartedness was still permitted alongside the serious scientific work – you may find Atlantic seabed features named after favourite brands of biscuits if you look carefully.

Another good friend of SUT and long-serving Member and Fellow who passed away in the last few weeks was John Lawson, who worked for Chevron in Aberdeen. John made a major contribution to SUT over the years, most recently through his support of our Subsea Awareness Course. He was even more active in our sister Learned Society the IMarEST, chairing their membership committee and subjecting many young engineers to their professional reviews. He was a keen supporter of SUT becoming a body licensed by IMarEST to issue professional recognition, and his unexpected passing leaves another gap in our community that will take time to fill.

I’ll end this newsletter with a heartfelt Thank You to all of our staff and the volunteers who enable SUT to hold events,  inspire the next generation, develop new branches and carry out the numerous duties that are essential to the successful running of an international marine science & technology Learned Society. We couldn’t do our work without you, and my job would be impossible.

For those of you in the northern hemisphere, wrap up warm for the winter months, for those in the south enjoy your summer. For those who celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful festive season, and I look forward to working with you all again in 2020.

Steve Hall

CEO SUT

August update from SUT CEO Steve Hall

New SUT HQ at 2 John Street

Dear SUT Members and friends – the year is flashing past and in the last week we’ve moved the HQ office to 2 John Street, London WC1N 2ES – after two years in a basement we are now in a third-floor office with natural daylight should you be passing by and want to say hello. Our new telephone number is +44 (0)20 3405 9035. The nearest tube station is still Chancery Lane, and we’re not far from Russell Square.

Since I last wrote to you SUT members have been busy hosting events, training courses and social activities including Houston’s Crawfish Boil, Perth’s meeting on the Future of Subsea Autonomy, Newcastle’s meeting on Deep Sea Exploration and a Flexible Flowlines event at our Middle East branch.

Sue John chair of the education committee at Charles Dickens School Southwark July 2019

I spoke on the theme of ‘Blue Future – underwater technology and the Blue Economy’ at London and Southern England Branch’s Lunch & Learn on 12th June, and enjoyed presenting to young future professionals at the Charles Dickens School in Southwark in July – we don’t often get a chance to speak to 6 and 7-year-olds and they really do ask some of the best questions. One young lad was interested in how electronic devices can be made waterproof for use at sea – as he had learned the hard way that tablet devices don’t last long if played with in the bath! I was really impressed by how well-briefed the youngsters were, they even asked questions about deep sea mining, and one young lady wanted to be an explorer on the oceans of Saturn’s moon Titan. Gives me real hope for the future!

Steve at IEEE-OES Oceans 2019

I was invited to Marseilles by our friends in the Marine Technology Society who offered us a free booth in their space at the IEEE-OES Oceans 2019 conference. I couldn’t stay for more than a day, but it was good to be there, meet delegates and learn about how SUT can work with MTS and the IEEE-Oceanic Engineering Society in future years. We share much in common and face similar challenges of recruitment and retention of members, attracting investment and sponsorship, and ensuring that our members are well prepared for the challenges of this century such as the transition to renewable and low-carbon energy, developing new ocean industries like mining and deepwater aquaculture, and encouraging the next generation to choose to work in our sector when there is so much competition for their talents.

Full-size model of BRIDGES glider at IEEE-OES Oceans 2019

At the end of June, I briefly attended the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Assembly where SUT is a valued Observer Member, and one of the few organisations present who are able to provide an industry perspective. As a former Vice-Chair of UNESCO IOC I was warmly welcomed, and able to talk to delegates from the countries where we have branches, as well as to some from countries where we are not yet active, but would very much like to host Branches in the future. The two big stories in global ocean policy development at the moment are the forthcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030, and the developing new UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. SUT members will increasingly find themselves working in international waters as the search for mineral and biological resources move further offshore in future years, & the accompanying new legal structures will become part of the operational life of offshore corporations. SUT through our Policy Advisory Committee, informal contacts, and membership of the various advisory bodies will play a part in ensuring that all voices are heard when designing future legal regimes and standard operating procedures. If it’s an area that interests you, get in touch and we can see how we can use the talents within our membership to make a lasting impact.

Keith Broughton at the LSE Lunch & Learn 12th June

We also supported the IMarEST ‘Engine as a Weapon VII’ workshop in London at the start of July. Modern warships use their engines to drive massive generators to produce the wattage required to drive the ship, power the electronics and as we move into an almost sci-fi world, power lasers, rail-guns and electro-magnetic catapults. It’s not a big part of SUT’s areas of interest, but we do have members working in the defence sector and as submarines become mother ships for a host of exotic autonomous and remote-controlled platforms, it promises to be an area of future growth as our world traverses a tense period in international relations.

Meeting of Middle East Branch at Mubarak Marine Dubai (credit: Sirena marketing)

Another interesting collaboration in recent weeks has been to work with the Nautical Archaeology Society to raise awareness of the wreck of The London, a very rare Cromwell-era warship that was lost by explosion in the Thames Estuary in 1665. Her remains are very close to the dredged channel and the valiant team of marine archaeologists and volunteers who are exploring the wreck in the narrow windows between tides would dearly love for a SUT Member with access to high-resolution seabed sub-bottom profiling equipment to be able to have a look at what lies beneath. Long-standing SUT Member Tony Taylor has been working with the Nautical Archaeology to help raise funds and awareness of the fate of the ship – see https://www.nauticalarchaeologysociety.org/appeal/save-the-london – I can put you in touch with Tony and the NAS team if you are interested in helping the appeal.

Business Development Meetings

As we try and navigate SUT back into better health and growth, a team of experienced members led by Chair of Council David Saul is meeting monthly and working with me to drive initiatives to generate new membership, retain the people we already have, and explore how to raise revenue and reduce costs. At the July meeting of Council we also agreed to conduct a strategic business review to look at all aspects of the organisation, objectives, and structures of SUT so that we are fit for purpose and have appropriate systems in place to run and grow the Society. I’ll keep you informed of progress as the review proceeds, which in intended to be complete in time for the Annual General Meeting in December.

Accreditation

Work continues of having our first trial of the Professional Accreditation scheme that we are intending to license from IMarEST starting in September, and our Australian Branch is close to launching a scheme with Engineers Australia very soon too – so for the first time you will be able to be a Member of SUT and have full professional accreditation as well. For the HQ-based scheme, the first cohort will be for Chartered Marine Technologists, and we will roll out Chartered Marine Engineer and Chartered Marine Scientist as we gain experience of processing the applications. More from me very soon on this. For more detail on the existing IMarEST CMarTech registration see https://www.imarest.org/membership/membership-registration/apply-for-professional-registration/chartered-marine-technologist-cmartech – the SUT system will be very similar with no reduction in the expected level of professional achievement, we will, however, carry out our own accreditation interviews and reviews.

Alongside SUT, IMarEST are also going to license the scheme to the Marine Technology Society, so SUT and MTS will work closely together in how we train assessors, cooperate with IMarEST and maintain the highest professional standards.

Forthcoming Events & Meetings

Regularly check out https://sut.org/events/ for news on upcoming events – for instance in the next few weeks Houston will be hosting technical meetings & their annual clay shoot competition, I’ll be attending the final workshop of the BRIDGES programme to develop an autonomous vehicle optimised for supporting the deep subsea mining industry, Perth will host technical & social events, and as we move into September the Middle East Branch are hosting a meeting on flexible, umbilical & cable installation & China Branch host the 8th SUT Technical Conference in Zhejiang. Aberdeen will be holding their popular ‘gadgets and widgets’ evening event on 18th September. London & Southern England branch will have an evening meeting on deep sea mining, Singapore Branch have a technical meeting on the 19th September, and the OSIG South West Geoforum will take place at the end of September at Brunel’s SS Great Britain – always a wonderful venue.

Meeting of Middle East Branch at Mubarak Marine Dubai (credit: Sirena marketing)

Other key events that we are involved with include Offshore Europe in Aberdeen at the start of September – the first event at the new Aberdeen P&J Live events venue next to Aberdeen airport. SUT will be at Stand 1M53. October brings the Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland’s annual science meeting in Glasgow where SUT will host the salvage and decommissioning workshop, and later in the month, the AUT 2019 Conference takes place in Perth, Australia. Evening meetings will be taking place across the branches including ‘plastics in the ocean’ at the North of England branch on 2nd October, Salvage, and UXO in Aberdeen, and in November we get in the same week the ADIPEC event in Abu Dhabi, a Commercial UAV event we’ve been invited to attend in London, and Oceanology China in Shanghai where I will be chairing the marine autonomous systems sessions. I’ll also be speaking at IMarEST’s international conference on Marine Engineering & Technology in Oman the week before ADIPEC so plenty of opportunities to promote SUT in the Middle East coming up.

Aberdeen & Houston will be hosting Subsea Awareness Courses, which are increasing in popularity now that industry is returning to strength. We are developing new courses too for the offshore wind industry and other users – if you are interested in helping us to develop new courses, or volunteering to teach one, please get in touch.

Academic Members

The SUT has long-standing corporate members from academic & research institutions across the world. They train the next generation of young engineers, technologists, scientists, lawyers, finance experts and policy makers that we rely upon across our sector, and of course are the great knowledge creation hubs that will help us meet the challenges of feeding & providing resources & energy to 9 billion + human beings by the middle of this century. In coming newsletters I’ll start to feature our academic members in short descriptions of their institution, capabilities and how they can work with our industry members for mutual benefit. I’ve already visited universities in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, China & Norway since joining as CEO two years ago and have a reasonable amount of material to hand, but please get in touch if your university isn’t yet a Corporate Member of SUT and you’d like to be featured in a future article.

Chris Milner

Chris Milner at the 2018 Aberdeen AGM

I’ll finish this newsletter with an appreciation of our valued colleague and former Aberdeen Chair Chris Milner who died tragically young on 9th July following a short illness. Chris was one of those people so full of energy and positiveness that you wonder how on Earth they manage to fit so much into their day. Foremost came his family – his wife Louise and sons Nick & Joseph were at the core of his busy life and always came first. His employer was BPP-Tech & Cables where for many years Chris had been the regional manager in Aberdeen. Chris was active in many fields, & found time to be a key member of SUT’s Aberdeen Branch, serving as Chair until a couple of years ago. Chris was also an elected Member of SUT Council – a role he carried out diligently and professionally. When I became CEO in 2017 he was one of the first to contact me, welcome me into the organisation and provide help and advice any time I needed it. I last saw Chris at All Energy in Glasgow in May, where he was excited by the possibilities presented to SUT by the growth of offshore renewables, and an advocate for us setting up a new chapter in the Central Belt area. It’s hard to believe he’s gone.

Many members of the Aberdeen Branch attended a memorial event for Chris on 31st July, where Branch Chair Daniele Petrone spoke of our high regard for Chris Milner, & Jim Mann gave a moving testimonial about Chris’s contributions to SUT and the Aberdeen subsea community. It was good to see so many SUT Members there to support Chris’s family.

Chair of London and Southern England Branch Richard Binks will be taking part in the Great North Run on 8th September to raise money for the Brain Tumour Charity in memory of Chris – if any of our members would like to support him the link is

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/binksygreatnorthrun

I’m also planning on honouring Chris’s memory with one of our scholarships this year – he was an enthusiastic supporter of young professionals and wanted to encourage people to enter our industry.

Next Newsletter

Being UK-based there’s a tendency for me to speak mostly about what’s happening in my own back yard, so if you’re at one of our overseas branches and want me to speak more about what your branch is doing, please send me any updates you wish me to include in the next newsletter.

For my Northern hemisphere readers please enjoy what’s left of the summer, for our friends in the South winter won’t last too much longer.

The Marine Technology Society and the Society for Underwater Technology Announce Agreement to Collaborate

(WASHINGTON, D.C./LONDON – June 26, 2019) – The Marine Technology Society and the Society for Underwater Technology announced that they have entered into a three-year Memorandum of Agreement to explore ways to work together to the benefit of their collective membership.

“In looking at our organizations, we find that we share similar missions that could complement each other,” said Rick Spinrad, president of MTS. “We are working with SUT to explore collaborations on new chapters and initiatives that could extend our reach and expand our memberships.”

Both SUT and MTS focus on the facilitation, development, and application of marine science and technology for purposes of exploration, understanding, and sustainable use of the ocean and its resources. From their origins in the USA and the UK, MTS and SUT have grown into international organizations with similar levels of individual and corporate membership and with a complementary geographical presence.

“The opportunity for MTS and SUT to work together across areas of common interest provides an exciting opportunity to enhance the services provided to our members,” said Ralph Rayner, President of SUT.  ”Under the terms of our Memorandum of Agreement, we are already pursuing a number of joint initiatives allowing us to better deliver membership benefits.”

About the Marine Technology Society

Founded in 1963, the Marine Technology Society is a nonprofit international community of ocean engineers, technologists, policymakers and educators that provides the ocean community with forums for the exchange of information and ideas through international conferences, its peer-reviewed MTS Journal, newsletters and website, www.mtsociety.org.

About the Society for Underwater Technology

The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) is a multidisciplinary learned society that brings together organizations and individuals with a common interest in underwater technology, ocean science, and offshore engineering. SUT was founded in 1966 and has members from more than 40 countries, including engineers, scientists, other professionals and students working in these areas. To find out more about the Society, including membership, events and publications, visit www.sut.org.

Media Contacts:
Lisa Stryker, Marine Technology Society

Emily Boddy, Society for Underwater Technology

June 2019 Update from SUT CEO Steve Hall

Dear Members and friends of SUT, time has flashed by since I last wrote to you so there’s quite a lot in this newsletter. You can see that we’re busy raising SUT’s profile, opening new branches and supporting our long-term members.  

Claire Cardy receiving her award at ocean business

April started with the well-attended Ocean Business event at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. It is one of the most popular of the cycle of trade shows, conferences and exhibitions thanks to the dock-side location where exhibitors can demonstrate systems, sensors and an ever-widening variety of autonomous surface and sub-surface systems. Many people comment that it reminds them of the buzz from pre-year 2000 Oceanology International exhibitions when it was located in Brighton, helped by the evening presence of friendly hostelries just outside dock gate 4 and a rich social events list. We had our customary stand in the marquee alongside the dock, were able to interact daily with members and colleagues from sister Learned Societies and Professional Bodies, & contribute to the conference programme. I also gave talks at the careers session and had one-to-one meetings with early career technologists and students to help them seek employment opportunities and give them some ideas about where to focus their efforts.  

SUT stand at Ocean Business

It was good to see that our friend Versha Carter was thanked for her contribution to getting Ocean Business established and successful, and to our SUT Plus member Claire Cardy receiving the Society for Maritime Industries Marine Science & Technology Business Person of the Year 2019 Award – Claire is now a Director at Nortek and is making a real impact on our community.

Meetings were held by our Marine Renewable Energy Committee, members of the Defence Special Interest Group, Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics group and by the Panel on Underwater Robotics. With plenty of SUT members on hand we were able to hold meetings of the SUT executive committee, and engage in detailed discussions with our friends from IMarEST and the Marine Technology Society, which I shall expand upon next.

Accreditation and Professional Registration  

SUT is a Charity and a Learned Society, but is not (in UK law) a Professional Body, able to issue things such as Chartered Professional Status. In the UK, only bodies awarded a Royal Charter by the Privy Council can do that, such as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors or Institute of Civil Engineers. Another is the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST) who have for decades worked closely with SUT and even hosted our headquarters at various times. 

After several months of negotiations, we’ve reached agreement with IMarEST to conduct a trial run of acting as a body licenced by IMarEST to issue Chartered Professional Status to our own members, using the IMarEST assessment system and professional categories at first, before developing our own unique post-nominals. From September 2019 we’ll trial a group of about a dozen SUT Members who wish to become Chartered Marine Technologists, and if it’s successful we’ll role out Chartered Marine Engineer and Chartered Marine Scientist in due course, before aiming to develop specialisations such as Chartered Marine Technologist (ROV) or Chartered Marine Engineer (Subsea). If you’d like to be part of that first cohort please drop me an email and I’ll bring you up to speed. Exact pricing is yet to be confirmed but we won’t be undercutting IMarEST’s own fees out of fairness to them, however it does save you the annual cost of also being an IMarEST member if you aren’t one, and you will be able to make an offset for the costs in your tax returns as a formal professional registration fee. 

You don’t have to be based in the UK to use the scheme, and it’s quite a vigorous process to ensure that you are up to the required professional standard – but by 2020 we should have the first SUT Members able to use the postnominals CMarTech on our books. It’s a big step forward for SUT, and in time will have quite an impact as we evolve new methods of continued professional development and record keeping, but it will start off small so that we can learn as we go, with support from IMarEST. 

SUT and the Marine Technology Society 

The other big news is that we’re working with the US-based Marine Technology Society towards an enhanced level of cooperation so that we can help one another in the areas where we operate, increase our collective impact rather than compete in a destructive manner, and try and avoid holding major events and conferences the same week, grow bonds by inviting members to our events and so on. Why should we do so? MTS and SUT are both 1960s-formed organisations with very similar remits, and in a crowded space for Learned Societies it makes sense to co-operate for mutual benefit. MTS are primarily based in the USA & Japan, with high levels of membership in places such as the Woods Hole and Scripps communities, whereas SUT has a broader spread of international membership, and much higher engagement from offshore industry, only significantly overlapping with MTS in Houston – so we’ve made sure that our US branch is aware of the conversations we’ve had, and is able to have their voice heard from the top down.

Steve, Ralph and Rick Spinrad of MTS

Rick Spinrad, the MTS President, is well known to me from my former life as Vice Chair of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission as he was a senior member of the US ocean science community, and has known Ralph Rayner, SUT President, for many years. Rick also intends to visit our Perth Branch and attend the AUT 2019 conference in October (https://sut.org/event/perth-aut-2019-conference/) MTS have already voted for a President Elect to succeed Rick, former US Navy officer Zdenka Willis who some of you will know from her work with the US sustained ocean observing programme and Oceanology China events. Zdenka is a keen supporter of growing a closer relationship between SUT and MTS and her eventual appointment ensures stability in our relationship for the next few years.  

Defence  

SUT now has an embryonic Defence Special Interest Group, initially chaired by Rolly Rogers. The focus is on marine autonomous systems and advanced sensors in a defence context, so for now we’re keeping it invitation-only until the Group has fully agreed the Terms of Reference and level of security clearance requirements, if any. Message me if you’re interested and would like to be a member. Initially NATO-only plus Australia and New Zealand, but this may evolve as the group matures. 

SUT Middle East  

Adrian Phillips has worked wonders in a short time getting a new SUT Branch up and running in the United Arab Emirates. The first meetings have been held in Abu Dhabi & Dubai, and the core team are already planning new events, engagement in ADIPEC and many other activities. They’re now on the SUT Website, or you can contact Adrian direct at [email protected] to find out more.  

SUT West Africa  

We’re helping the team in Lagos rebuild SUT in West Africa, and they’ve already held their first Subsea Awareness Course, & started to gain new corporate members. It’s a steep learning curve, and the branch will need assistance and patience as we see it grow and flourish. If there are experienced SUT members reading this who are very familiar with how west Africa works, and are interested in helping to grow and support the Branch, please get in touch as it’s a part of the world where we should be operating, helping to transfer knowledge and build local capacity.  

NOC Association & MASTS 

I was invited to represent SUT at the National Oceanography Centre Association meeting on 9th May, where we learned about the forthcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, as well as the plans for NOC to enter the private sector as a not-for-profit entity. They have been long-term members of SUT and we have a good relationship with the staff, a number of whom serve on our committees and special interest groups. SUT Corporate Membership provides some valuable insight from industry to the people at NOC, and our advice and input to their future development is appreciated. On a similar front I have been invited to the Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland (MASTS) meetings, as has Moya Crawford (Chair of our International Salvage & Decommissioning Committee); we create a substantial contribution to their annual science meeting with a specialist salvage and decommissioning workshop. 

LSE evening meeting  

Attendees at the TechnipFMC meeting wearing their VR headsets

I enjoyed the Subsea 2.0™ & iEPCI™ evening presentation hosted by TechnipFMC on 9th May, very educational for people like me who don’t come from an oil and gas industry background. The use of virtual reality headsets really put you into the centre of the virtual oilfield and I learned a lot. 

All-Energy  

John Sharp with winners of the Lennard Senior Prize

I spent a couple of excellent days in Glasgow in May, visiting the facilities at Strathclyde University, and attending the All-Energy exhibition and conference where Dr John Sharp, Chair of our Marine Renewable Energy Committee, was able to award the Lennard-Senior Prize to Andrew Scott, very well deserved and a rare occasion where previous winners were also in attendance. Thanks go, as ever, to Judith Patten for her energy and enthusiasm, and to the Reed Exhibitions team who ensured another good show in Glasgow.  

It did however raise again the awareness that we need a Branch or Chapter to cover pent-up demand for SUT in the Glasgow-Edinburgh-Central Belt region, as there is much happening but it’s too far to be effectively run from Aberdeen. Definitely one for my ‘to-do’ list – volunteers to get something up and running would be appreciated. 

SUT US & Oceanology Americas 

I was really pleased to see that our US Branch have entered into an agreement with the organisers of Oceanology Americas to support the future conference series. Jan Van Smirren, supported by Zenon Medina-Cetina and the Houston staff had done a superb job with the Oceanology Americas 2019 conference in San Diego, so it’s great to see that we’ll be continuing to grow that series in 2021. Well done to all concerned. 

ACOPS reception  

Keith Broughton with Lord Hunt at the ACOPS meeting in Parliament

On 17th May Keith Broughton of LSE Branch and myself were honoured to be invited by Lord Julian Hunt to an evening reception at the House of Lords by the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea, ACOPS, one of the oldest ocean-related NGOs started off by the late Prime Minister Lord Callaghan back in 1953, when as a junior MP he’d noticed oil pollution staining the swimming costumes of his children when holidaying in South Wales and visiting the beach. In those days ships would routinely flush their tanks at sea and Callaghan’s efforts eventually led to the banning of that practise. His daughter, Baroness Jay, was present at the meeting. We had very good presentations from Lord Hunt, our good friend & SUT Member Dr Philomene Verlaan (a rare example of a lawyer who is also a sea-going research scientist, specialising in ocean mining) and ACOPS director Dr Youna Lyons, who is based in Singapore – so a possible future link with our Branch there. I subsequently met with Philomene and Youna the following week for a detailed marine policy discussion – SUT’s links with academia, industry and government puts us in a unique position to help inform debate and discussion on ocean stewardship, resources and future management systems. 

Aberdeen SAC  

We had another successful Subsea Awareness Course in Aberdeen, showing again that the industry is recovering and demand for placing staff on courses is rising. My thanks to Jacqui and Lisa, our Aberdeen-based staff, and to our volunteer instructors Tony Laing, John Lawson, Paul Benstead and Bill Nicholson from BP, Sean Bonner and Steve Christison of BHGE, Joao Melo, John Harris, Andrew Reilly, Darren Philp and Vicky McBain of Oceaneering, Scott Cassie, Paul Yeats, David Yule, François Avon, Steve Benzie, Craig Flockhart, Stuart Rae, Mark Main, Gordon Craig, Paul Hekelaar, Ben Mair, David Procter and everyone else involved at i-Tech 7, Dale Tikasingh and Kevin Attree at ProServ, and Hooman Haghighi, & Keith Anderson from Wood. 

Xodus reception  

On 23rd May I was invited to the launch of the refurbished offices of Xodus Group in London. I was particularly impressed to learn that they had recruited 30 young people in the last 12 months, it’s brilliant to see innovative companies encouraging new engineers, technologists and scientists into the subsea sector and taking a real interest in getting them well trained and engaged with complex projects from the start.  

ErasmusMATES – Skills for the Blue Economy 

Back into the policy space, I was invited (and paid for) to attend a meeting in Brussels on 28th May about how we train the next generation in skills and academic subjects to service the needs of the emerging blue economy in Europe and beyond. It was an opportunity to present the role of Learned Societies such as SUT to policy makers, academics and European civil servants. Regardless of ‘Brexit’, SUT is an international organisation and our members will be working all over the world as we move into a whole new realm of offshore industries, discovery and technologies in coming years.  

Coming soon 

I’ll be talking on 12th June on the theme of ‘Blue future – New technologies, new ocean industries and SUT’s role in delivering the Blue Economy as a midweek lunch and learn – register for tickets at https://sut.org/event/london-south-of-england-lunch-learn-save-the-date/ it will be good to meet members and talk about the future.  

In June I’ll also be meeting with colleagues from the Marine Biological Association and IMarEST to see how we work together more effectively, and we’ve been offered free stand space at the IEEE-MTS ocean conference in Marseilles. If anyone is in the area and would like to volunteer to ‘man the stand’, please get in touch – but time is short as it’s 17-19 June.  

For those of you interested in the defence space we are one of the Learned Society supporters of the wonderfully-named ‘Engine as a Weapon’ conference, number 8 occurs this year in July – see https://www.eaaw.org.uk/ Future naval platforms will have directed energy weapons, magnetic railguns and other features straight out of science fiction, and the young engineers and technologists in training today will deliver that capability.  

Membership renewals go out in July and this year we’ll be launching a Patrons Scheme too – I’ll send out a separate message for Members describing the scheme, its aims & objectives, and the benefits of becoming a Patron of SUT as soon as possible. 

We do still need to ensure our survival by growing the Society – so please encourage your friends and colleagues to join SUT, as individuals or as Corporate Members – we still lose more people than we gain each year as members retire from the industry and the next generation don’t join in their place. I’m hoping that launching the accreditation system mentioned at the start of this newsletter will start to bring in a new cohort of members, but the need to grow is urgent and ongoing. Bring a colleague!

Finally, after two years in Chancery Lane it’s time for a new office contract, and the best value option we’ve found is to move a few hundred metres north to John Street, WC1N, off Gray’s Inn road. For those of you who’ve visited our current office, you’ll know that it’s in a basement with no natural sunlight, and after two years in the dark my staff and I are going a bit mad, so we’ve chosen a nice space with a window and sunlight to see us through the next couple of years as we progress from where we are now to a growing Society able to offer professional registration, the beginnings of a global network of allied Societies and a key role in delivering the UN Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development too. It’s going to be challenging, and fun.

Steve Hall 4th June 2019 [email protected]  

April 2019 Update from SUT CEO Steve Hall

SUT Council Member Sue John presenting to schools at Lloyd’s Register

Dear SUT Members – March was another busy month for SUT, with branches delivering a number of activities including a Subsea Awareness Course in Aberdeen, the popular Global Offshore Prospects presentation from Westwood Global Energy, schools events for the UK’s National Science Week, as well as a full range of activities across the global network.

For me the month started with a return from Oceanology Americas, followed by a short period of leave and engagement with our International Committee, the schools events and representing SUT at IMarEST’s AGM and Annual dinner. I was invited to St John’s Newfoundland to give the guest talk at the Oceans Advance (see http://oceansadvance.net/) AGM, and was made very welcome while I was in town, having the opportunity to meet local industry (special thanks to Subsea 7), give a guest lecture to students at Memorial University’s Marine Institute, and get to the see the excellent facilities at Memorial’s School of Engineering, the National Research Council of Canada’s impressive test facilities, the offsite marine base at Holyrood, and the Autonomous Ocean Systems Laboratory in St John’s where I met the prototype ‘Seaduck’ – an autonomous vehicle with a difference, as this one behaves as a surface vehicle then up-ends itself and can profile vertically to 200m, return to the surface and continue the mission.

Steve trying the ROV simulator at Memorial University’s Marine Institute, St John’s Newfoundland

It’s designed to map icebergs and is one of the most innovative examples of ocean technology I’ve seen for a while. Contact Neil Riggs at Memorial for more information.

We fully intend to launch our first SUT Canada Branch in St John’s this summer, and if my visit is any indication it promises to be a successful new part of the SUT Community. Key point of contact is Paul Ryan at Memorial, or through me while we get the initial committee in place.

Meanwhile Adrian Phillips and his colleagues have launched several activities at our new Middle East Branch, focused on Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and using Al Khalifa University and Heriot Watt UAE campus as the base for events. Things are moving quickly there and I’m delighted with the progress to date.

Steve taking part in the UNESCO meeting about sustained Ocean Observations

In the final week of March I was invited to take part in the AtlantOS Symposium at UNESCO HQ, to make the case for how private industry, Learned Societies and Professional Bodies can engage in delivering sustained ocean observations in the Atlantic, and in support of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030. I’m grateful to the German research organisation GEOMAR for covering SUT’s costs to attend the meeting, and for recognising that we are key players in the science/technology/ocean policy interface able to speak for a large community. I’ve attached the text of my ‘intervention’, as they are known in UN circles, at the end of this newsletter.

Innovative seabed hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell by Teledyne Energy Systems at MCE-Deepwater Development

This week myself, David Saul and David Brookes plus many of our members took part in the MCE-Deepwater Development conference and Exhibition in London, chairing sessions and with David Saul delivering one of the technical talks. Next week it will be full-on for Ocean Business in Southampton – we’ll have a booth in the dockside marquee and I look forward to meeting members and recruiting new ones – this is key to our growth, if you know anyone who isn’t yet an SUT member please encourage them to join – we’re remarkably good value!

Other news – we’re making progress on developing a partnership for accreditation and training that will be discussed at SUT Council later in April, more news on that very soon.

View of Holyrood Marine Base, St John’s Newfoundland

Business Opportunity – Our friends at the Marine Management Organisation have asked me to let members know about a project to develop Technology Roadmaps for UK Overseas Territories, as part of the ‘Blue Belt’ Programme, with a focus on monitoring and surveillance against illegal fishing.

I am not able to send a direct link, as users must register with the Defra online procurement portal to access the opportunity: https://defra.bravosolution.co.uk/esop/guest/login.do

It can be found by searching the title once logged in: ‘Tender for Technology Roadmaps for Sea Fisheries Compliance and Enforcement in UK Overseas Territories’

The closing date is 29 April 2019, with the deadline for clarification questions on 12 April.

Prototype ‘Seaduck’ autonomous vehicles at the Autonomous Ocean Systems Laboratory, Memorial University

Our Member the National Oceanography Centre has also been in touch asking if I can raise awareness of the 9th Annual Meeting of the NOC Association on 9th May in London. Jackie Pearson writes:

“There are still some places left for the 9th Annual Meeting of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) Association on 9th May 2019 at Central Hall Westminster.  After a morning of Association business, the afternoon will focus on the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) and we are keen to hear views from the marine science and technology community on how the UK might contribute to this initiative.”

The agenda and registration page for this free event are available on this link: https://noc-association-2019.eventbrite.co.uk and to access, please use password: NOCA2019

If you have any questions, please contact NOC Association Secretary Jackie Pearson on [email protected] or telephone 023 8059 609

As members will know I’m aiming to write one of these newsletters every month, so do please forward me stories, ideas or areas for discussion that I can raise with members. My direct email is [email protected]

Finally for this newsletter I’d like to send my very best wishes to Jennifer Maninin, the very able administrator of our Perth Branch, who has left us temporarily to go on maternity leave. I’m sure that all of all of us at SUT send Jennifer our best wishes and we look forward to hearing her news soon.

Appendix to April Newsletter:

Text of the Intervention made by Steve Hall, CEO SUT, on behalf of marine Learned Societies and Professional Bodies at the AtlantOS Symposium, UNESCO March 2019

Delegates – my name is Stephen Hall, I’m Chief Executive of the Society for Underwater Technology, an international Learned Society for Marine Science & Technology, established in 1966. Like many who work in our wide & varied ocean world I’m a member or Fellow of several other Societies in addition to my own, including the Marine Technology Society, Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology, Scottish Association for Marine Science, and the Challenger Society for Marine Science.

So what value does the global family of Learned Societies & Professional Bodies add to sustained ocean observing in the Atlantic, and to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development? I believe that our community has much to offer. Between us, rather like an international Trade Union or traditional Master’s Guild, we represent the many thousands of individuals of all nationalities who spend their working lives at sea, or work onshore managing, building and planning new offshore activities, from coast to deep ocean. We greatly outnumber the community of government & university sector marine scientists, are often well funded, and equipped with state of the art ships, autonomous underwater vehicles and sensors. We have the women & men who work at sea on oil and gas platforms, who install & maintain offshore renewable energy systems, who survey & install new cables and pipelines, who salvage damaged & sunken vessels, who plan new industrial installations, who work on fish farms, who work for marine spatial planning organisations, as private consultants, as media divers, who drive and maintain ships and submarines, who create wealth from the abundant resources that the ocean is able to provide when managed in a sustainable manner, informed by scientific evidence and accumulated experience, shared by members at networking evenings, mentoring, business breakfasts, seminars and through our publications.

We are just at the start of a new era, where a world that must decarbonise quickly will find that the raw materials & metals required for the electric vehicle and renewable energy revolution are often found in the deep oceans and mid-ocean ridges, largely in areas beyond national jurisdiction. New kinds of machinery, new methods of autonomous survey, mineral extraction and seabed remediation will be developed and deployed in the next ten years. All of this activity generates data – metocean conditions for offshore operations and safe helicopter and drone operations; benthic biodata for seabed assessment and risk mitigation; full-ocean-depth oceanographic measurements so that robots can operate safely at 6000 metres and beyond, new cabled observatories, subsea communications and recharging points.

Our members will be developing systems that allow autonomous surface vessels to navigate safely even if satellite navigation systems are being actively jammed or tampered with, we’ll be deploying sensors that will monitor sediment plumes from subsea mining activities, we’ll operate the most advanced and safest possible offshore plant to make hydrogen fuels, to bury carbon dioxide, even to re-stock the oceans with ranched finfish species. It’s an exciting time to be involved in offshore industry.

AtlantOS & UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development can work through the Learned Societies and Professional Bodies to agree codes of practise, metadata standards, and data sharing protocols so that the terabytes of ocean data gathered by our members in their routine operations are not wasted, or never see the light of scientific analysis. We’ll need to organise our mutual relationships a little better and form some new alliances to be well placed to help, but we can do that – the will is there. All of us publish peer-reviewed journals, we all want to see clean, safe, sustainably-managed yet wealth-creating ocean and seas able to provide essential energy, raw materials & products, and fulfilling careers for the next generation.

I see huge opportunities for the international marine science community to develop new partnerships with industry. In a world where there are never enough research ships and sensors to gather all the data we need, private sector platforms, robotic or human-occupied, can act as additional systems for gathering ocean data, especially from deep waters far from the continental shelf. All of the Learned Societies have Continued Professional Development systems either ready or under development, they are engaged in training, safe working practices, and meeting Societal Need. We all encourage young people to join our sector, we all issue scholarships and have school liaison programmes. AtlantOS and UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission will find us only too willing to contribute what we can, for the benefit of humankind, to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and to manage the exploitation of ocean resources in the least-harmful possible manner so that all of the creatures who live in the One Ocean can live in healthy ecosystems including a large percentage of the global ocean left as unexploited, sanctuary space able to repopulate neighbouring waters.

Thank you

Steve Hall, CEO Society for Underwater Technology

2015-2017 Vice-chair Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Group 1

March 2019 Update from SUT CEO Steve Hall

 

Margaret Leinen being presented to SUT/Oceanology International Lifetime Achievement award – photographed with Ralph Rayner and Rick Spinrad

Greetings to all our members and colleagues in the wide world of Underwater Technology. I’m just back from Oceanology International Americas 2019 where our US Branch played a key role in developing & delivering excellent conference sessions, engaging with industry and ensuring a strong Learned Society presence throughout the event. Our President Professor Ralph Rayner was a guiding presence throughout the preparations for OiA19, chaired the prestigious Ocean Futures Forum and more besides. Several of the technical sessions in the conference programme were chaired by SUT Members, with me covering autonomous underwater systems & navigation. We were the Learned Society supporters of the ‘Catch the Next Wave’ event held in partnership with the Explorers Club, sponsored by the X-Prize foundation and co-supported by the Monterey Bay Aquarium & Research Institute & Sonardyne – and we were particularly honoured to be able to present, with exhibition organisers Reed Exhibitions, a Lifetime Achievement Award to Margaret Leinen, Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (for a brief bio click here)

Don Walsh speaking about the Trieste Mission to the Challenger Deep

A highlight for me was during the 50 years of Oceanology International Session, listening to Don Walsh – a very sprightly 87 – recount the mission to the bottom of the Marianas Trench as commander of the bathyscaphe ‘Trieste’ back in 1960. Inspirational stuff!

Steve with Zenon Medina-Cetina, Chair of SUT-US, & Professor Scott Glenn of Rutgers University, past recipient of the SUT Oceanography Award, at the SUT stand at Oceanology Americas

Oceanology International Americas provided a showcase of SUT’s expertise & membership within a broad range of subject areas and I’d particularly like to thank Jan Van Smirren for his work in developing the conference programme, to say thank you for the input of Dr Zenon Medina-Cetina, Christopher Curran, Andy Hill & the Houston-based committee, and to SUT’s early career members Tai Prince & Devvrat Singh Rathore for their help throughout the event. My thanks too to Reed Exhibitions for their close working relationship and support as we worked together to celebrate 50 years of Oceanology International – which started as a SUT event back in 1969. In 2020 the 25th Oceanology International will take place in London and we will once again play a key role in celebrating what our industry has achieved over half a century and more.

SUT Stand at SubSea Expo

Other events since the start of the New Year that I’d like to mention include the SUT Aberdeen Business Breakfast at the end of January, where Tony Laing and his colleagues presented an encouraging message of new growth in the North Sea sector and an opportunity to meet our members in the pleasant and snowy grounds of the Marcliffe Hotel. This was quickly followed in February by Subsea Expo where SUT had a well-attended stand at a busy exhibition and I’m pleased to say we signed up several new members, corporate and individual. There was an excellent Global Offshore Prospects ‘Lunch & Learn’ by Douglas Westwood hosted at Price Forbes in London on 12 February, and although I wasn’t able to attend them I can see that our North of England & Perth Branches have also held successful events in the last few weeks.  We look forward now to the first of 2019’s Subsea Awareness Courses in Aberdeen from 11 March, and I’ve invited to give talks this month at two high profile events – I’m the guest speaker at the AGM of Oceans Advance in St John’s, Newfoundland on 21 March & on 27 March I’ll be speaking on the role on industry in providing sustained ocean data observations at the AtlantOS Symposium at UNESCO.

Kathryn Symes speaking at the LSE Lunch & Learn on global offshore prospects

Why Canada, and why UNESCO? SUT is working with partners in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to launch our first Canadian branch this year. There’s an eager, healthy cluster of marine technology industries there, and we’ve been made very welcome by the existing community in Newfoundland to act as the first springboard to growth in Canada. SUT is an Observer Member of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, where I used to serve as Vice Chair, and as such we are one of the very few industry / non-governmental voices able to input into the development of the coming UN Ocean Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Our members are very well-placed to be able to assist governments in their efforts to better-understand the ocean environment, and to be able to use our advanced technologies, databases and real-world experience of working at and under the surface to help meet the challenges posed in ocean governance, sustainable use of resources, technology transfer, knowledge exchange and responding to sea level rise, ocean acidification and warming.

New Branch – SUT MIDDLE EAST

A big Thank You to Adrian Phillips and his supporters in the United Arab Emirates who are in the midst of setting up our very first SUT Branch in the Middle East. From an initial ‘gauging the interest’ meeting during ADIPEC late last year, things have progressed rapidly and the first two events take place on 8 April at Heriot Watt University Dubai, and on 22 April at the Petroleum Institute, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi – see the new Middle East pages on the SUT website or contact [email protected] for more details.

Kuala Lumpur – I was delighted to meet up with Ajan Das, Chair of our Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Branch, while he was in London early in February. We were able to cover lots of areas of interest, and discussed how to take forward new initiatives, the relaunch of Subsea Awareness Courses, and growth of the Branch.

Growing SUT

It’s very important that we grow SUT, and recruit more individual and corporate members. SUT Council are very focussed now on how we get our Society into a healthy long-term financial position after the challenges of recent years, and I would ask all of you to encourage your friends, colleagues and companies to join SUT if they are not already part of the family – there’s a bright future for our sector as the world transitions away from burning coal and seeks energy, minerals, knowledge, resources and defence space in the global ocean.

See you at Ocean Business 9-11 April at Southampton,

Steve Hall [email protected]