Seabed 2030 Vision-to-Action Summit, London

This meeting, which took place at the historic Royal Society on Tuesday 22 October, was convened to mark the progress made in the two years since Seabed 2030 was launched, and to look ahead to the remaining challenges of mapping the gaps in our understanding of the seafloor. In the short time that it has been operational, Seabed 2030 has already seen a doubling of the bathymetric data available to produce the definitive map of the world’s oceans – an increase equivalent in size to the landmass of the entire African continent. ***The invitation-only roster of attendees included some of the world’s leading ocean scientists and maritime organizations, including representatives from the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. Also in attendance were delegates from industry partners such as Esri (Chief Scientist Dawn Wright and Maritime Program Manager + GEBCO TSCOM Vice Chair Caitlyn Raines), the XPRIZE Foundation, and the team behind SEA-KIT, the unmanned surface vessel (USV) which formed a key part of the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni Team’s winning entry in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. ***See more info and notes at http://esriurl.com/visiontoaction and https://seabed2030.gebco.net/news/seabed2030_new_global_initiatives.html