Revealing Hidden Depths - the Seabed 2030 Podcast

Podcast 15, March 2025 - apologies for delay with this one - we've all been busy with a series of workshops and conferences, spreading the word about why seabed mapping matters and signing up new partners. This episode focuses on one of those meetings, the Economist World Ocean Summit held in Tokyo on 12th & 13th March 2025. Seabed 2030 and GEBCO representatives were present, with the Nippon Foundation playing a key part throughout the event. Nippon Foundation Chair Mr Sasakawa opened the event, and his opening speech in English is featured from 4m44s into this podcast. 

We also hosted a...

For the first episode of 2025 Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall interviews Matthew Zimmerman, CEO and co-founder of FarSounder, based in Rhode Island USA, & one of our industry partners since Year 4 of the Project.
FarSounder specialise in products such as 3D forward-looking sonars that don't only look down to map the seabed, but also scan forwards to enable users to avoid whales snoozing near the surface, or collisions with objects such as containers.
FarSounder are very active in supporting Crowdsourced Bathymetry, and in outreach about the importance of seabed mapping for public benefit.
Find out more...

Episode 13 is our longest episode to date and features interviews recorded during the 6th Pacific Ocean Mapping Meeting that took place in Fiji in November 2024.  With some 90 participants from 27 nations, the meeting was a rare opportunity for mappers, marine managers, industry representatives and members of Seabed 2030's supporting organisations to meet face to face, and learn first hand from citizens of Pacific island nations about the issues and challenges they face, and why seabed mapping matters so much to them.

For this podcast, Steve Hall our Head of Partnerships conducts 4 interviews:
Apenisa Cavuilati of the Fiji H...

For episode 12 of the Seabed 2030 podcast, Head of Partnerships Steve Hall interviews Denis Hains (see LinkedIn profile) Hydrospatial Global Influencer, President and CEO of H2i. 
Denis is a long-standing champion for ocean mapping, having served in a series of international influential roles including as Hydrographer General of Canada & Director General of the Canadian Hydrographic Service.
He is a member of the Seabed 2030 Strategic Advisory Group, and although he retired from Canadian government service in 2018, he has remained a prolific & visible contributor to the ocean mapping community with many pro-bono professional advisory activities.
Denis was the r...

For episode 11 of the Seabed 2030 podcast, head of partnerships Steve Hall interviews David Vincentelli of French manufacturer Exail - a high-tech industrial group specialising in cutting-edge robotics, maritime, navigation, aerospace and photonics technologies. With a first-rate reputation for their innovative products, Exail now manufacturer a well-regarded marine autonomous survey platform, the DriX vehicle, available in a variety of sizes and specifications.
Able to survey at 8 knots and with the latest version capable of full trans-ocean range, DriX is another excellent example of how new robotic technologies are helping Seabed 2030's data acquisition partners map the global ocean.
...

Episode 10 of the Seabed 2030 podcast features Head of Partnerships Steve Hall talking on the theme of "Why do we map the Ocean?" - he looks at the history of human seafaring, the gradual evolution of mapping technologies, the challenges and uses of seabed mapping, ending with a section on how mapping fits into the context of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Find out more about Seabed 2030 at seabed2030.org, any questions or for more details contact Steve Hall.

Revealing Hidden Depths - the Seabed 2030 Podcast
Find out more about our project...

For episode 9 of the Seabed 2030 podcast we've used a recording made of the session hosted by the International Hydrographic Organisation during the UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona in April. The session was called "The Seabed Data we need for the Ocean We Want" and started with three keynotes moderated by Claire Jolly of OECD - Dr Mathias Jonas, IHO Secretary General; Mr Mitsuyuki Unno, Executive Director of the Nippon Foundation; Professor Gideon Henderson, Chief Scientific Adviser of DEFRA, UK; followed by a panel session moderated by Sam Harper of IHO consisting of lawyer Dr Virginie Tassom Campanella; Mr...

For our 8th episode Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall talks to colleague Shereen Sharma, Head of Seabed 2030 Engagement and Development, who is based in Perth, Australia.
Shereen talks about her career in private sector hydrographic survey before joining Seabed 2030, explains her role including her involvement in the challenging TESMaP hydrographic survey in the aftermath of the 2022 Hunga Tonga - Huna Ha'apai volcanic eruption, which included the use of Sea-Kit's Maxlimer USV controlled from the other side of the planet, and her work with Nippon Foundation GEBCO Alumni.
Find out more about Seabed 2030 at www.seabed2030.org...

For our 7th episode, March 2024, Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall interviews acclaimed sailor Lisa Blair. On her yacht "Climate Action Now" Lisa has broken records including the solo, non-stop, and unassisted around Antarctica (2022); solo, non-stop and unassisted around Australia (2018); and in 2019 with co-skipper Jackie Parry becoming the first double-handed female team to finish in the history of the gruelling Sydney-Hobart race.
However Lisa is not only an ocean adventurer - citizen science is equally important as she carries a Seabed 2030 data logger so that she can contribute new bathymetric data obtained when sailing in places...

For Seabed 2030 podcast episode 6, Head of Partnerships Steve Hall speaks to Dr Vicki Ferrini, Head of our Atlantic & Indian Ocean Center - a key person in the Seabed 2030 team.
Vicki talks about her research background, the life-changing experience of diving on board the famous submersible Alvin, and how mapping the ocean floor informs how we manage ocean space, understand the earth-ocean system better, and make better informed decisions. 
She also speaks about her passion for encouraging diversity and equality in ocean science, and about engaging with industry as we strive to fill-in the gaps of the global m...

Episode 5 - January 2024. In this edition Head of Partnerships Steve Hall first talks to Jamie McMichael-Phillips, Project Director of Seabed 2030. Jamie wishes listeners Happy New Year, and describes how Seabed 2030 will take forward our workplan in 2024, including our presence at the Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona scheduled for April.
Second interview is with Louis Demargne, who is on Secondment from our industry partner Fugro to the Decade Coordination Unit of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. Louis explains the role of the DCU, how he's been tasked to grow links with industry so that the global ocean science community can...

Episode 4 of the Seabed 2030 Podcast features 3 interviews - first up Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall interviews Professor Larry Mayer during the 5th Arctic-Antarctic & North Pacific Mapping Meeting that took place in Bremen, Germany, 27-29 November 2023.
Larry is somewhat of a legend in the seabed mapping community and is a Professor and Founding Director of the School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering and the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM) at the University of New Hampshire. See https://seabed2030.org/people/larry-mayer/ for more about him. In this short interview recorded in a corridor during a...

Episode 3, November 2023, features an interview with Derek Niles & Colin Thomson of Seabed 2030 industry partner Orange Force Marine on their data pipeline solutions "from ping to cloud".
Find out more about Orange Force Marine at https://www.orangeforcemarine.com/ and contact them via info@orangeforcemarine.com
For more on Seabed 2030 see our website at https://seabed2030.org/
To get in touch about this podcast, submit questions or ask to be featured on a future episode contact Steve Hall
Copyright 2023 Seabed 2030
Produced & Edited by Steve Hall, Music & Introduction by Emily Boddy 
*This is a revised v...

Episode 2 of the Seabed 2030 Podcast features two interviews by Steve Hall -
1m 10s Brian Connon, Vice President of Ocean Mapping, Saildrone
13m 51s An interview with Anna Hendi of DFO Canada and her students about a UN Ocean Decade-endorsed Seabed 2030 student project to develop automated identification of underwater features in bathymetry data. See https://oceandecade.org/actions/detection-of-undersea-features/
Ends at 57m 40s
Find out more about Seabed 2030 at www.seabed2030.org
Email Brian Connon via brian.connon@saildrone.com
Email Anna Hendi via Anna.Hendi@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Podcast produced by...

In our first episode Head of Partnerships Steve Hall introduces Seabed 2030 with a summary of the history of mapping the ocean floor from earliest times to the present day. At 11m 12s Steve introduces this month's guest, David Millar of Fugro. David speaks about why Fugro, a major private sector seabed survey company, is supporting Seabed 2030 and at 20m 30s David also introduces the new UN Ocean Decade Corporate Data Group, at 29m 40s he speaks about encouraging the public to value ocean mapping, and at 35m 10s speaks on future developments for Fugro seabed mapping.
Find out...