Diving into ocean innovation
Existing Mace Head Buoy of the SmartBay network
Ireland has an ocean territory ten times the area of its landmass. While the full exploitation of our fishing potential has frustratingly been hamstrung by ground ceded during early EU negotiations, a new strategy aims to open a fresh chapter on marine exploitation, by establishing ocean innovation as a possible 'game changer' for Ireland. The SMARTOCEAN Innovation Cluster Strategy, launched for consultation in Galway last month, aims to bring together existing ICT knowhow and significant science and technology investments in our 220 million acre marine environment to develop new products and services for global markets.
At the Galway workshop, Professor John Delaney, an oceanographer at the University of Washington, told attendees that ocean exploration was on the threshold of a new era. "About 3,000 plus years ago, we began using ships to cross the ocean and study the ocean; in 1957 the second major tool was added, the satellite," he said. "Now for the first time ever, humans are on the threshold of entering the oceans comprehensively, volumetrically and interactively."
The US government has invested $700 million in ocean measurements, with a goal to launch a scientific era of discovery utilising interactive telepresence, said Delaney. "There is a technological convergence taking place that will allow humans to be interactive throughout the oceans; it is not just a camera somewhere in the oceans. This is a distributed sensor network that is constantly communicating at the speed of light with humans on land. This is very powerful. It is time for boldness, ability and bandwidth." He told the audience that the technological challenges are global and will not yield to national solutions.
Aiming to put Ireland at the hub of ocean innovation, the SMARTOCEAN Innovation Strategy seeks to bring together a cluster of expertise, involving government bodies, universities, multinationals and SMEs in this country. Among the current areas of activity is the Advanced Marine Technology Research Programme, co-ordinated by the Marine Institute in association with the National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) in Dublin City University (DCU) and a range of industry and research partners. Its aims include creating an industry-oriented research grouping in the field of sensors, intelligent systems and sensor platforms. Facilities at their disposal include SmartBay, a network of sensors on various platforms, including buoys, seafloor cables and tidal gauges in Galway Bay, plus a further set of test platforms in bays, coasts and oceans around Ireland, providing environmental test and demonstration platforms to trial and showcase new concepts, equipment, technologies and solutions in real-life situations.