Raymarine is to collaborate with The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project – an ambitious global initiative to map 100% of the world’s ocean floor by 2030.
Seabed 2030 was launched in 2017 and is a collaborative effort between The Nippon Foundation and General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO).
It is an officially endorsed programme of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and aims to compile all available bathymetric data into a freely accessible map of the global seafloor.
The project will support marine conservation, climate modeling, tsunami forecasting, and sustainable ocean resource management.
This collaboration reflects our commitment to safer navigation, better science, and a more sustainable future for the maritime industry.
Grégoire Outters
As part of the collaboration, Raymarine will contribute a dataset of crowdsourced bathymetric recordings collected from thousands of vessels equipped with Raymarine sonar systems.
The data has been gathered from real-world usage across the globe, and will enhance the resolution and coverage of existing seafloor maps, particularly in under-surveyed coastal and offshore regions.
“We’re proud to support Seabed 2030 in its mission to accelerate the complete mapping of the world’s oceans,” said Grégoire Outters, general manager at Raymarine.
Understanding of the ocean floor
“This collaboration reflects our commitment to safer navigation, better science, and a more sustainable future for the maritime industry.”
Jamie McMichael-Phillips, director of the Seabed 2030 Project, added: “Raymarine’s contribution of crowdsourced bathymetric data is a powerful example of how industry can accelerate our understanding of the ocean floor.
“We welcome their support and look forward to the impact this data will have on our global mapping efforts.”
The Nippon Foundation is a private philanthropic organisation based in Tokyo.
To date, only 27.3% of the world’s seafloor has been mapped to modern standards.
