Page 10: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2005)

10 MTR November 2005

SERPENT Image Competition

Kongsberg Maritime extends its support of the SERPENT project by sponsoring, alongside BP, a flagship underwater image and video competition. The competition is seeking entries in five categories with the aim of showcasing the best biological and technical images taken in the deep sea.

The SERPENT (Scientific and

Environmental ROV Partnership using

Existing Industrial Technology) project was founded by Dr. Ian Hudson from the

DeepSeas Group in the George Decon

Division of the National Oceanography

Center, Southampton (NOCS) and oil and gas industry partners. The project unites research establishments and oil and technol- ogy companies in a bid to increase our knowledge of the sea, by utilizing the spare time of ROVs (Remotely Operated

Vehicles). "With so little known about the deep ocean and so many ROVs, rigs and vessels engaged in oil and gas work worldwide the potential for getting data back to science from industry is huge," said Dr. Ian

Hudson. "The competition will find the best of images to show the world the won- ders of the deep."

The image competition is open to indus- try, scientists, support staff and professional photographers. The five categories consist of: Underwater Images (>200 m depth),

Technical Underwater Images (>200 m depth), Microscopic/specimen images of deep-sea species or features, fieldwork/experimental set-up/vessels and vehicles/equipment and underwater video footage. Judging criteria includes visual impact, importance to science, the novelty, the rarity of the subject, but most of all the way the images capture the essence of the deep ocean and how we explore it today.

The competition results will be announced at the 11th International Deep-

Sea Biology Symposium, to be held at the

National Oceanography Centre,

Southampton on July 9-14, 2006. Each cat- egory will have three cash prizes: 1st = $870 (£500), 2nd =$522 (£300) and 3rd = $348 (£200). news

Sea SERPENTS

The Scientific and Environmental ROV

Partnership using Existing Industrial

Technology - or SERPENT - is a project where science is working with the oil industry to capture rare subsea species on film. Animals in the deep oceans are being filmed by robotic cameras and vehicles as oil companies go about the business of seeking new oil reserves or performing maintenance. The teaming is allowing sci- entists to vastly expand their capability to discover new species and document pat- terns. For more information, visit http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/GDD/ser- pent

New Insights on

Ocean's Crust

Scientists have pro- duced images of the oceanic crust and found that its upper and lower layers are likely formed from dif- ferent magma pools.

Geophysicists Robert

Detrick and Juan-

Pablo Canales of

Woods Hole

Oceanographic

Institution (WHOI) and colleagues used reflected seismic (sound) waves to image the structure of the lower crust across the flanks of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, ana- lyzing about 1,500 km (935 miles) of data off the coast of

Washington, Oregon and northern

California. The study was funded by grants from the National

Science Foundation.

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