NOC News Round Up - 10 March 2017

National Oceanography Centre Joins World Ocean Council The National Oceanography Centre has joined the World Ocean Council (WOC), the international cross-sectional alliance committed to corporate ocean responsibility. The NOC joins the other 80+ member organisations from a wide range of ocean industries including shipping, cruise tourism, seafood, fisheries, aquaculture, mining, oil and gas, marine mining, renewable energy, ocean technology, maritime law, marine environmental Services. Read more. The Ocean's future is stressful A NOC-led study, published earlier in the week in Nature Communications, finds that with just 15 more years of current emissions, over half of the world's ocean will be exposed to more than one source of stress, affecting everything from the tiniest plants to the mightiest whales. By 2050, that figure rises to around 86% of the ocean. Lead researcher, NOC's Dr Stephanie Henson said "Understanding how the marine ecosystem might respond to these changes in the next big question in oceanography. This study shows that the physical ocean environment is changing rapidly and forms part of the NOC's on-going research into the future of the ocean." Read the paper here. Successful rescue of equipment from the sea-floor This week the team on-board the RRS James Cook successfully recovered a scientific instrument that dropped 5km to the bottom of the sea, after the cable it was being lowered on snapped. Click here to read about how the team used a grapple to recover the instrument. The NOC's Andy Henson, Head of Scientific Engineering, said "finding the CTD instrument was really like locating a needle in a haystack, and only worked because of the co-ordinated teamwork of everyone involved; the technicians back at base, who advised on the best method of hooking the CTD and gave advice locating it, and the whole team on board led by the Master and the Senior Technician." NOC scientist presents on board an oil rig This week the NOC's Andrew Gates presented video and images of marine life around the Tansocean Spitsbergen drilling rig, taken using an ROV, to the rig's crew. This talk highlighted the potential impacts of rig operations and the importance of good environmental practice. It forms part of the SERPENT project.   This email was sent using GovDelivery, on behalf of: National Oceanography Centre · Waterfront Campus · European Way · Southampton · SO14 3ZH · United Kingdom