It’s a fact that we on earth have less knowledge about our oceans than the surfaces of celestial bodies like sun or moon!
Hence, marine scientists are launching $2 million to $3 million project to explore our ocens and also to study the impact of cliamte change and overfishing on them.
Better satellite networks, tsunami monitors, drifting robotic probes or tags on fishes could all be used for the purpose.
Tony Haymet, Director of the U.S. Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Chairman of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, or POGO says,
This is not going to be a pie in sky. It’s a fact!
He told Reuters that new technology was available cheap and could enable to carry out global surveys of this kind.
Jesse Ausubel, a director of the Census of Marine Life says;
Silicon Valley hasn’t come yet to the oceans! Lots of cheap, disposable devices can now be distributed across the oceans, in some cases on animals or at the sea-bed or sometimes just drifting along.
POGO wants the 72-nation Group on Earth Observations(GEO), whose meeting will be held at Cape Town, South Africa between Nov. 28 to Nov. 30 to consider its appeal to carry out global survey of oceans in order to better understand our planet by 2015.
POGO wants to raise the number of drifting robotic probes, the ‘Argos’, from present 3000 to 3,00,000. They are useful for measuring conditions driving climatic changes. Scientists also want to increase number of electronic tags on animals that will enable to better understand the migration patterns and results of overfishing.
Ausebel adds;
I’ve estimated that if we invest $50 million to $60 million a year we will soon have a global ocean tracking system that could trace the path of the sharks from Cape Town to Perth or path of tunas from Miami to South Hampton.
Better ocean tracking system could give better warning signals for disaster like recent Bangladesh storm or 2005 Indian Ocean tsunami that took a toll of 2,30,000 lives.
Source: MSNBC