https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-04/seabed-2030-project-mapping-the-sea-floor-mining-interests/10852606?fbclid=IwAR29nfVMCQPS5efDRq-ecGLoZSple_5PG31XWn-KP9-NHsK_Cv2aX9dOnk8A fascinating article from the abc dot net dot au (ABC News) website on Mapping sea beds - ocean maps of underwater locations.
Article by Antony Funnel.
Information from the above ABC News article:
More than 71 percent of the earth is covered in ocean water. Only 18 percent of the ocean floor has been mapped.
Most shallow waters in the ocean with depths of 200 metres have been mapped. Depths more than 200 metres haven’t been mapped due to safety reasons and how expensive underwater mapping technology is.
Seabed 2030 is an exciting and amazing international group effort of marine scientists that will work with shipping companies, fishing companies, ocean transport companies, scientists and civilians to map ocean floor.
It will be a crowd sourced way of mapping oceans underwater. It plans to map Earth’s ocean floors in a bit over ten years. They started working last year in 2018.
This will help record rocks, land masses and icebergs underwater, which will make traveling and navigation by ships and submarines safer. This will save human lives and also help save the environment.
Seabed 2030 plans to use sound based technology and more modern echolocation technology that can be attached to ships that travel nationally and internationally.
Sound technology will map the seabed’s effectively.
This is because light based maps don’t work well underwater, and traditional echolocation based maps are not effective.
Deep Sea Mining companies will need to be regulated so that the sea environment can be protected for our children and descendants, for generations.