NOC News Round Up - 5 January 2018

Happy New Year! After a few week's break, we're back with all the latest news from the NOC, including a few stories from before the Christmas break.    The COMICS expedition completes The first COMICS expedition reached a conclusion just before Christmas, having collected a great data set on biological carbon in the Ocean's twilight zone. The next COMICS expedition will start in May. Click on the link below to watch an animated video from this project about marine snow, and why the COMICS team are studying it. G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Working Group Meeting The G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Working Group workshop took place in London on 12-13 December, and was attended by Government officials, funding agencies as well as marine scientists and specialists from across the G7. The Working Group is being led by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy with the NOC and NERC playing an integral part in driving forward Working Group activities with support from Defra, FCO, Scottish Government, PML, BODC, UKHO, Cefas, SAHFOS and UEA, amongst others. As outlined in the G7 Turin Communiqué and annex (the latter of which is an executive summary of the Working Group's report on progress since May 2016), the Working Group was mandated by Science Ministers to meet before the end of 2017 to agree action plans that ensure continued strong progress in 2018. The group will now look to take forward a range of activities, as agreed at the workshop, to help strengthen G7 coordination in the five action areas over the next 12-18 months. RRS James Cook spends Christmas on the Mid-Atlantic ridge On the 20th of December the RRS James Cook left Southampton to head towards the mid-Atlantic ridge, where the team on board spent Christmas as part of the University of Liverpool led FRidge project. Click on the link below to watch a time-lapse video of the RRS James Cook leaving Southampton.   This email was sent using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Oceanography Centre · Waterfront Campus · European Way · Southampton · SO14 3ZH · United Kingdom