First footage is transmitted live from the depths of the Indian Ocean: Mission to explore the effects global warming will have on 2.5 BILLION people in the region gets underway
- Much of the Indian Ocean is already feeling the effects of global warming
- This affects the species that live there and 2.5 billion people in the region
- Nekton Mission will conduct dives in parts of the Indian Ocean over three years
- Research will contribute to a summit on the state of ocean planned for late 2021
- Each mission is being live-streamed across the internet as it happens
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A British-led mission to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean has broadcast its first live transmission from a two-person submersible.
The first broadcast came from 60 meters (200 feet) down, whereas previous deep-sea livestreams cataloguing the world’s oceans have been via fibre-optic cable.
The Nekton Mission, run by ocean research institute Nekton, will shed light on the impact global warming is having deep below the surface of one of the world’s least explored areas.
It will gather data and gain munch-needed understanding of the Indian Ocean’s ecosystem and to see if any new species are lurking there.
Unveiled at the Commonwealth headquarters in London, the project will help us learn how life is distributed in the seas in the face of climate change.
The mission will also explore what effect climated change will have on the estimated 2.5 billion people at home in the region – from East Africa, South and Southeast Asia.
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https://youtube.com/watch?v=g8GpdEyT45c%3Ffeature%3Doembed
The new broadcast uses cutting-edge wireless technology, sending video optically through the waves.
Monsoon storms and fierce underwater currents continued to present a challenge at greater depths as scientific work began in earnest off the Seychelles.
The Associated Press is the only news agency working with British scientists from the Nekton research team on its deep-sea mission that aims to unlock the secrets of the Indian Ocean.
Nekton chiefs said there were better maps of Mars than the seabed, 95 percent of which remains unexplored.
It is hoped that the data produced by the mission will enable scientists to model where similar observations are likely to be found in the oceans.
The multi-national team of scientists is gathering data to help policy-makers frame protection and conservation measures.
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Nekton Mission director Oliver Steeds said the experience battling the waves highlights the need to expand scientific knowledge of the ocean.
‘The problem is, when it comes to this place, when it came to the currents, the last current data that was gathered before we came here was in 1882,’ he said.
‘It’s part of the challenge. This is exploration.’
Last month, Professor Alex Rogers, part of the scientific team, said: ‘In the Indian Ocean, the deeper zones are almost completely uninvestigated. We simply don’t know what’s there.’
A British-led scientific mission in the depths of the Indian Ocean has broadcast its first live, transmission from a two-person submersible. Experts are hoping to find out what impact global warming is having below the surface in one of the world’s least explored areas
The first transmission came from 60 meters (200 feet) down. Previous deep-sea livestreams cataloguing the world’s oceans have been via fibre-optic cable. Monsoon storms and fierce underwater currents continued to present a challenge at greater depths as scientific work began in earnest off the Seychelles
The Oxford University deep sea biologist said that the mission could find 100 to a thousand new species, including lots of new corals.
‘The more you zoom in, the more diversity you’re going to find. I’m really confident that we’ll discover many new species,’ said Professor Rogers.
‘The ocean is suffering serious degradation from overfishing, pollution and climate change. It’s critically important to understand how life is distributed in the oceans now, so we can make decisions better to manage the oceans.’
The £3.8 million ($5m / €4.4m) collaboration brings together 47 partners from business, philanthropy, sub-sea technology, media and civil society.
Its two submersibles will take 17 different research tools and technology into the deep, along with 18 cameras to create the first three-dimensional maps of deep sea ecosystems.
A mission to explore uncharted depths in the Indian Ocean has now launched. A handout picture from 2016 released by ocean research institute Nekton shows a submersible craft working above the seabed off the coast of Bermuda
HOW MUCH WILL SEA LEVELS RISE IN THE NEXT FEW CENTURIES?
Global sea levels could rise as much as 1.2 metres (4 feet) by 2300 even if we meet the 2015 Paris climate goals, scientists have warned.
The long-term change will be driven by a thaw of ice from Greenland to Antarctica that is set to re-draw global coastlines.
Sea level rise threatens cities from Shanghai to London, to low-lying swathes of Florida or Bangladesh, and to entire nations such as the Maldives.
It is vital that we curb emissions as soon as possible to avoid an even greater rise, a German-led team of researchers said in a new report.
By 2300, the report projected that sea levels would gain by 0.7-1.2 metres, even if almost 200 nations fully meet goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Targets set by the accords include cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in the second half of this century.
Ocean levels will rise inexorably because heat-trapping industrial gases already emitted will linger in the atmosphere, melting more ice, it said.
In addition, water naturally expands as it warms above four degrees Celsius (39.2°F).
The report also found that every five years of delay beyond 2020 in peaking global emissions would mean an extra 20 centimetres (8 inches) of sea level rise by 2300.
‘Sea level is often communicated as a really slow process that you can’t do much about … but the next 30 years really matter,’ lead author Dr Matthias Mengel, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in Potsdam, Germany, told Reuters.
None of the nearly 200 governments to sign the Paris Accords are on track to meet its pledges.
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