SUT represents the interests of our members on the UK government’s Marine Science Coordination Committee ‘Marine Industries Group’.

The whole MSCC has been rather quiet of late, as government departments have been distracted by the requirements of dealing with COVID 19, Brexit, & a series of closely spaced general elections, but on Friday 3rd July they released a new ‘Road Map Overview’ about the broad future direction of UK Marine Science – which has direct implications for our industry members too.

You can download a copy here

The science priorities of the revised roadmap are :

Better understand the capacity of the marine ecosystem to supply ecosystem services, natural resources and societal and economic benefits now and into the future.

Better understand the structure, function, resilience and variability of marine ecosystems.

Better understand the impacts of climate change, including its multiple stressors and feedbacks, and the ocean’s resistance and resilience to a changing climate.

Promote and represent UK marine science at international fora, strengthening existing and building new relationships with international partners including research organisations and infrastructure.

Better enable the efficient capture, storage, use and security of marine scientific data.

Better understand society’s relationship with our oceans and seas.

Better understand cumulative and in-combination impacts on the capacity of marine systems to supply food, energy and mineral resources as well as mitigate against the risk and effects of natural hazards.

Support the long-term monitoring, observing and mapping of the marine environment and ocean systems.

Facilitate the communication of high quality, up-to- date marine science and evidence.

The new areas of focus will drive procurement of science services, data, sensors and robots in coming years. SUT will continue to act as a voice for our members on the MSCC Marine Industries Group – contact CEO Steve Hall if you need to know more.

The next two Underwater Technology Podcasts will be back-to-back episodes looking at the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in polar seas. In Podcast 15, due out on 30th June, we’ll feature an interview with Bruce Butler about the mission of the ISE ‘Theseus’ vehicle to lay fibre-optic cable underneath Arctic ice back in the 1990s, a truly pioneering programme that prepared the path for many of the research, military and industrial AUVs that have followed since.

In Podcast 16 two days later on 2nd July we follow up with an interview with Peter King of the University of Tasmania on their missions underneath Antarctic Ice using a more modern AUV from the same ISE stable as Theseus, benefitting from two decades of advances in technology.

You can upload our weekly podcasts from https://sut.buzzsprout.org or from your preferred podcast service, look up ‘Underwater Technology Podcast’ to download, stream or subscribe.

Photo above of Theseus vehicle courtesy of Bruce Butler.

Dear SUT Members – we’re still in lockdown to various extents across our global network but work continues to ensure that SUT is active and providing content and value to our members. 

On a fortnightly basis we’re alternating lunchtime seminars on Mondays at 1330hrs BST, and online training seminars at 1300hrs BST on Tuesdays. Meanwhile the weekly podcast series is proving popular with over 1200 downloads and a growing global audience – download from https://sut.buzzsprout.com or your favourite podcast provider, search for ‘Underwater Technology Podcast’.

Next week Tuesday 9th June 1300-1400hrs BST, Christopher Curran of SUT USA in Houston will be presenting free to SUT members online training on High Integrity Pressure Protection Systems (HIPPS) – see https://sut.org/event/sut-online-training-seminar-no3-hipps-christopher-curran/ to register. Numbers are limited to the first 99 so register as soon as you can. 

The next public seminar is Monday 15th June 1330hrs with Mick Cook giving a talk on Offshore Site Investigation – how far have we travelled in half a century? To register for that one go to https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpdu2ppjgjHtFgNcMZR_S_nY6WWNyEs38m – it will be recorded and uploaded afterwards to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/SUTMedia/ – I’m also looking for additional video footage to put on YouTube so anything you’ve got that will be of interest to our members please get in touch. 

On Monday 8th June it’s World Oceans Day so to mark that I’ve recorded a feature length podcast with interviews with my friend Captain Ariel Troisi of the Argentinian Navy, in his capacity as Chair of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and with Dr Francesca Santoro of the IOC Venice Office. 

We talk about sustained ocean observing, data sharing and acquisition, the forthcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science, the concept of ‘ocean literacy’ for the public, policy makers and industry and much more – if you’re interested in how SUT fits-in with global ocean science, education and policy development it’s going to be a good episode – we are official observer members of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and it’s one of the ways where our members can feed their knowledge and viewpoints straight into the core of policy development, which will be of increasing important as human offshore activity enters waters beyond national jurisdiction as a consequence of emerging industries such as deep sea mining, searching for marine genetic resources and deepwater aquaculture. 

I could do with some volunteers from the oil and gas sector for future podcasts – got plenty coming in from our members in universities, research organisations and the autonomous underwater vehicle user community but less coming through from our traditional membership. It only takes about half an hour to be interviewed and you get to review the finished version before it goes online to veto anything you (or your employer!) would prefer not to be shared. 

Other news – we’re developing new training for the floating wind sector, and in the early stages of new training for people in industries related to offshore work such as insurers, lawyers and financial specialists – if you’re interested in being a trainer or being trained please get in touch.

A reminder that we have launched a hardship scheme so that members made redundant in the present situation can be offered a year’s individual membership to end of June 2021, contact me or Jane Hinton if you would like to apply – see the news release at https://sut.org/hardship-scheme-for-members-impacted-by-covid19-downturn-job-losses/ for more. 

Gadgets & Widgets – our Aberdeen Branch have a well-established ‘gadgets and widgets’ event usually held fave to face but while current restrictions are in place we’re seeing if we can create an online version – if you have short video presentations that you’d like to share with members please speak to me or Jim Mann in Aberdeen and we’ll edit then into short online presentations for members to enjoy. 

SUT Forum – Coming very soon (i.e. as soon as I’ve figured out how to finish setting it up correctly!) we’re launching an online forum for members. I’ve registered the domain sutforum.org so just like you might already do with your favourite hobbies and interests there’ll be a space for discussion, debate and sharing of knowledge online available in the next week or so. 

Decommissioning North Sea – I had a productive telecom today with the DNS team to explore how our organisations can keep one another informed of activities and jointly develop some new seminars and online activities. 

Finally I’m sorry to report that as a result of the loss of income following the COVID downturn in business, our Perth, Australia Branch have had to take the difficult decision to lay off staff member Jennifer Bennett. She has been a very hard-working, competent and effective administrator for the Perth Branch bringing the highest professional standards to her work, liaising effectively with the UK-based staff and bringing a smile and positive attitude to her dealings with members in Australia. I’ll miss working with her and wish Jennifer the very best for the future. 

That’s it from me for this week, more soon.

Stay healthy, stay safe. 

Steve 

PS The photo at the top is taken from a small boat off the Pembrokeshire, Wales, coast pre-lockdown.

A special longer edition of the SUT Underwater Technology Podcast will go live on World Oceans Day, 8th June 2020. CEO Steve Hall has interviewed the Chair of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Ariel Troisi of Argentina, and also Dr Francesca Santoro of UNESCO IOC’s Venice Office. They talk about sustained ocean observing systems, the forthcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030, the ‘ocean literacy’ concept and how industry, SUT and our sister Learned Societies can contribute to better ocean science and stewardship.

Download from 0100hrs BST Monday 8th June 2020 from https://sut.buzzsprout.com or you favourite podcast provider.