Shark shield : a new device to protect divers and surfers from sharks

Australian Navy has approved the use of an Adelaide designed electronic shark deterrent following an attack on one of its divers last year.

The Adelaide-based Shark Shield company said the Navy accreditation and clearance followed seven months of testing after able seaman Paul de Gelder was attacked by a shark during a training exercise in Sydney Harbour in February, 2009 and lost his right hand and right leg in the attack.

The basic Shark Shield device weighs about 380 grams and is small enough to fit into a person's hand. Another version has been designed to be fitted to surfboards.

The Australian Navy approval should spark an increase in international and local orders for the Shark Shield technology, the company said.

Chairman Grant Price said the device emits electric impulses that cause great discomfort to sharks.
Sharks have hundreds of electro-receptors in their snouts, which pick up the minute electrical impulses emitted by living creatures in the water.
A Shark Shield emits impulses of greater intensity which cause sharks discomfort at a range of up to 8m.

If the shark moves further into the field they experience muscle spasms that are enough to deter an attack.

Mr Price said the Navy had chosen the Shark Shield as the most effective technology available.

"The Navy tested our product under a variety of conditions for seven months and has found it meets all criteria to improve the safety of its divers," he said.

"We are receiving enormous international interest in our device and expect general inquiries to translate to firm agreements as it becomes known that the Australian Navy relies on our technology.

"We are also hoping to extend the relationship with the Navy to supply Shark Shield to other military personnel."

Mr Price said Australia was known to have some of the most shark-populated waters on the planet, so what was seen to work in Australia had international credibility.

The device could also be used for swimmers, kayakers and fishers.

Links :

• DailyMail
• Paul de Gelder videos ( I / II )
• Shark attack survivors
  

SeaOrbiter, the sentinel of the ocean

SeaOrbiter is a unique vessel in the world, developing a new concept for man’s underwater observation, continuously twenty-four hours a day. It will permit a better understanding of marine phenomena and a new inventory of ocean wealth for the preservation of its resources, as well as those of our planet. It is at once a revolutionary and indispensable human adventure for future generations.

It is also a true platform of communication, within educational reach, the motor of a new adventure proposed to men around the Mediterranean, Europe and the world to fully understand the ocean and its ecosystems, to respect and to live in harmony with them.

SeaOrbiter is today accompanied by a large committee of internationally renowned experts coming from multiple domains of state-of-the-art competence, as well as by numerous manufacturers linked to maritime technologies throughout the world.

This project, of great symbolic weight, created by architect Jacques Rougerie, is above all a “gift to the generations to come”.

By combining the latest technology and the taste for adventure, we propose to them a maritime adventure unique since Cousteau. To promote a new message of hope for humanity.

Links :

• Freedom ship

Canada, a new chart layer in the Marine GeoGarage

CHS (Canadian Hydrographic Service) gives us its agreement to display their nautical raster charts (a set of 768 charts, 1618 charts including sub-charts) in the Marine GeoGarage.

--- END-USER RESPONSIBILITY ----------------------

This web application has been produced by MAGIC INSTINCT Software based on Canadian Hydrographic Service ("CHS") data, following any minimum standards/guidelines that may been established by CHS, pursuant to CHS Digital VAR Agreement N° 2010-0331-1260-M.
The incorporation of data sourced from CHS in this product shall not be construed as constituting an endorsement by CHS of this product.
This product does not meet the requirements of the Charts and Nautical Publications Regulations under the Canada Shipping Act.
Certified charts and publications, corrected and up-to-date, must be used to meet the requirements of those regulations.

Mariners should keep nautical charts up-to-date by consulting the Notices to Mariners which are monthly edited :

• Monthly Bulletin

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So with the Premium Chart subscription (9.9 € / month), you have access right now to all 3 additional raster chart private layers :

• UKHO (United Kingdom)
  
• SNH (Argentina)
  
• CHS (Canada)

Water-Scraper, self-sufficient city at sea

From Inhabitat

Ocean levels are rising around the globe, so rather than tethering our buildings to the sinking shoreline why not suit them for a life at sea?
That’s the approach behind the Water-Scraper, a futuristic self-sufficient floating city. A special mention in this year’s eVolo Skyscraper Competition, the design expands the concept of a floating island into a full-fledged underwater skyscraper that harvests renewable energy and grows its own food.

Touted as a self-sufficient floating city, Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum’s Water-Scraper utilizes a variety of green technologies. It generates its own electricity using wave, wind, and solar power and it produces its own food through farming, aquaculture, and hydroponic techniques.
The surface of the submerged skyscraper sustains a small forest, while the lower levels contain spaces for its inhabitants to live and work. The building is kept upright using a system of ballasts aided by a set of squid-like tentacles that generate kinetic energy.

The architects “envision a future where land as a resource will be scarce; it is only natural progression that we create our own. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, even more if climate change has its way, hence it is only natural progression that we will populate the seas someday.”
As anyone who has seen Waterworld will attest, it’s a grim future indeed — which is why it’s essential that we do what we can to stem the course of the world’s rising tides.

Links :

• Water-Scraper image

Update your charts onboard

The digital era of seamless global navigation has become a reality now.
The enormous task facing hydrographers surveying the world's continental shelves (many areas of which have never been surveyed) helped by the progress of electronics (multibeam, Lidar...) leads the way for navigational safety, changing the antique nature of many nautical charts available for better quality information.

The growing interest in electronic charts (fuelled by the ECDIS mandate), means that all shipping vessels must consider how to implement a suitable policy that addresses both electronic and paper products for the bridge.
The International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requires that, "All ships should carry adequate and up-to-date charts, sailing directions, lists of lights, notices to mariners, tide tables, and all other nautical publications necessary for the intended voyage".

IMO's push for e-Navigation and the introduction of a mandatory carriage requirement for ECDIS from 2012 could help to reduce the possibility of vessels sailing with charts that do not represent the most accurate and up-to- date representation of their navigational environment.
The concept of e-Navigation (proposed by IMO member States in 2006) is a process for the harmonisation, collection, integration, exchange and presentation of maritime information.

There are many reasons for moving to Electronic Charts.
Safety is certainly the first one but paper is also getting more expensive every year and chart-correcting skills harder to find. By the way, it's quite obvious that as take-up grows, costs will be lower so savings will be stronger.

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office has always been a pioneer and experimenter.
UKHO stepped into the new era of digital maritime navigation with its first system incorporating a digitised catalogue, product viewer and passage planning tool ensuring a safer and more efficient navigational aid for the mariner.

Fortifying the future transition to digital navigation, Admiralty e-Navigator organises, updates, and brings together all the paper and digital information required in the safe planning of voyages, proffering access to a wealth of information as well as the capacity to organise, maintain, and display all requisite data on the bridge instantaneously.

“Maritime navigation is undergoing a fundamental shift, from paper to digital, from protective to proactive navigation,” revealed Mike Robinson, Chief Executive of the UKHO. “It is moving beyond the basic avoidance of risk towards the International Maritime Organization’s vision of e-navigation, which will deliver enhanced services to the mariner.”

Underlining how the Admiralty e-Navigator is designed to provide seafarers with not only comprehensive navigational data, but also intelligence which will significantly improve the ability to sail more safely and efficiently, Mr Robinson indicated the importance of electronic systems at the forefront of shipping’s future.

With instant access to navigational data for route planning as well as automated updates, such a product is revolutionising the maritime world.
Also incorporated into the e-Navigator as well as tide and weather data is Admiralty Information Overlay (AIO), the only global digital service that includes worldwide Temporary and Preliminary Notices to Mariners, ensuring even greater standards of safety for international shipping.

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has also launched the Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS).
AVCS will provide the international mariner with an integrated global set of Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) schemed in folios along the major shipping routes and covering the world's top ports, with ordering, flexible licensing and updating services.

The transmission of digital chart data, whether by satellite or using other broadcast systems, is quite obviously the fastest way of getting the latest corrections on to a vessel bridge.

For example, the ChartCo Broadcast service, which uses the Inmarsat point to multi-point service, has recently introduced ChartCo Select which offers to deliver updates to UKHO's Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS) cells across both its Broadcast and Select delivery services.

The ENCTrack service from Datema includes a licensing setup which allows a vessel to access all ENC charts for planning purposes before actually paying for them.
Charts are available at all times, removing the need for ordering, and the ship is free to deviate from its original plan without being restricted by the ENCs it had previously ordered.
The basis of payment for the ENCTrack service is a tracking system which automatically compares the position of the ship to its chart holdings, transferring the position via satellite, and orders additional charts if the vessel sails out of its existing license area.

For its part, the Alliance for Safe Navigation lead by Jeppesen (C-Map) consists of industry leaders that all share a commitment to boating safety.
The goal of the alliance is to raise the boating community’s understanding of and appreciation for up-to-date navigational information.
The alliance encourages mariners to recognize the large number of changes made to their charts and to keep their electronic and paper charts accurate, which is inexpensive and easy to do.

By the way, e-Navigation.com is a service developed by Jeppesen to support the maritime community as it prepares for the ECDIS mandate, and the expanding field of e-Navigation.

Links :

• DigitalShip (March 2010) : Out of date charts lead to accidents
• London P&I club (StopLoss Bulletin #53 January 2010) : Keeping charts up to date
• ECDIS Ltd : The dangers of Out-of-Date nautical charts
• UKHO : The future of navigation
• Jeppesen : Boat Smart, Update Your Charts
• The Electronic Chart, supporting your transition to ECDIS navigation
• IALA : e-Nav FAQs
• EfficienSea : efficient, safe and sustainable traffic at sea