Stakeholders in the maritime sector have urged the Federal Government to establish a Centre for Seabed Mapping (CSM). In this report, OLUWAKEMI DAUDA looks at how the centre will assist the country in international trade, tackling illegal fishing and ending pollution on the nation’s territorial waters.
In the maritime domain, seabed mapping remains a strategy for checkmating insecurity.
This is why stakeholders in the sector are calling on the Federal Government to direct the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to establish a centre for seabed mapping.
The adoption of the new strategy by the two agencies, stakeholders who spoke with The Nation at various fora said, would assist the country in tackling illegal fishing and ending pollution in the nation’s territorial waters.
What is seabed mapping?
Seafloor mapping, also called seafloor imaging, is the measurement, mapping and imaging of water depth of the ocean or another given body of water. Bathymetric measurements are conducted with various methods, from depth sounding, Sonar and Lidar techniques, to buoys and satellite altimetry.
Why is seabed mapping important?
High-resolution seafloor mapping is a critical tool for regulating underwater resource exploration, extraction, and equipment, allowing us to decide what and where is safe. Seafloor maps also ensure that ships are able to safely manoeuver around natural and human-made – structures on the ocean bottom.
How is the seabed mapped?
More than 70 per cent of the earth’s surface is covered by water and cannot be measured with cameras or satellite imaging. Mapping is performed through remote sensing by bouncing soundwaves off the seabed.
How much of the sea floor is mapped?
Findings have shown that less than 10 per cent of the global ocean is mapped using modern sonar technology. For example, for the ocean and coastal waters of the United States, investigations show that as at February, last year, only about 35 per cent has been mapped with modern methods.
What are two methods for mapping
the seafloor?
There are three tools used to map the ocean floor, sonar, satellites, and submersibles. Sonar is a type of electronic depth-sounding equipment made in the 1920’s. It is an acronym for sound navigation and ranging. Sonar is also known as echo sounding
Why is mapping the ocean floor difficult?
“Mapping the seafloor is a difficult task, as you can’t use satellites, which is what we use to map the land. There is just too much water in the way.
How much of the ocean is mapped?
Investigation has shown that most of the waters remain unexplored. Indeed only five per cent of the ocean has been explored by humans and that is why the Federal Government needs to invest in it and explore the untapped benefits to boost the economy and create jobs for the youth.
Former General Manager of NPA, Chief Michael Kayode Ajayi said they were making the call for the establishment of the Centre for Seabed Mapping after the United Kingdom unveiled a new five-year maritime security strategy covering physical and cyber threats.
The new strategy, Ajayi said, was announced by UK Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps with a plan to enhance capabilities in technology, innovation, and cyber security.
“Across the globe, mankind has better maps of the surface of the moon and Mars than of our own ocean. To ensure that the nation’s maritime security is based on informed and evidence-based decisions, we must build our knowledge of this dynamic ocean frontier,’’ he said.
Our new maritime security strategy, Ajayi added, “must pave the way for the government, its agencies and industry players to provide the support needed to tackle new and emerging threats and further cement the nation’s position as African leader and maritime security.The creation of a new centre for seabed mapping by the NPA and NIMASA would be a huge step forward for the maritime sector. It will help everyone to better understand the seabed and be the foundation for numerous benefits including more informed management of the marine environment.”
Five objectives of the centre
Former President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANCLA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu said the creation of the centre would meet five strategic objectives: protection of the homeland; response to threats, ensuring prosperity, championing values, and support of a secure and resilient ocean as required by the international law.
“Adoption of a new proactive maritime security strategy by the Federal Government, through the NPA and NIMASA, is essential to keeping trade routes and energy supplies secure, especially for the landlock countries in the region.
“Now is the time for the Federal Government, through the NPA and NIMASA, to improve collaboration with other agencies, industry players, operators and governments across the Gulf of Guinea to help in delivering a more secure maritime environment and help provide confidence to the shipping community through the ports and waters,” he said.
Why is the ocean not explored?
Findings show that the pressures in the deep ocean make it an extremely difficult environment to explore.
“Although you don’t notice it, the pressure of the air pushing down on your body at sea level is about 15 pounds per square inch. If you go up into space, above the earth’s atmosphere, the pressure will decrease to zero,” an analyst, Mr. Kola Aderoju, said.
What was the first sea to be mapped?
According to Aderoju “the publication of Heezen and Tharp’s Physiographic Map of the North Atlantic in 1957 was the first map of the sea floor that enabled the public to begin to visualise what the ocean floor really looked like. This, according to the maritime expert, led to the question: Is there an ocean under the ocean?
Scientists, according to him, “discovered an ocean 400 miles beneath our feet that could fill our oceans three times over. After decades of theorising and searching, scientists are reporting that they’ve finally found a massive reservoir of water in the earth’s mantle — a reservoir so vast that could fill the earth’s oceans three times over and that is what the Federal Government needs to create the Centre for Seabed Mapping so that the country will tap from its immense benefits now and in the future.
Aderoju said: “Prior to the 19th Century, the methods for depth measurements were archaic. The lead and line system is a classical example, in which a plumb attached to a cable sank through the water column until it reached the seafloor. Such measurements were greatly influenced by vessel drift and marine currents. There had been a few attempts to improve the method, e.g., by Hooke during the 18th Century and Brooke in the 19th Century. In parallel, the lack of knowledge about the seafloor allowed hypotheses to emerge that were sometimes eccentric, such as a perpetual ice cover over the seabed.
“The operation to lay down the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic was an event of great importance, around 1850. This spawned and drove a need to produce better knowledge about the ocean depths and encouraged technological advances.’’
“By 1920, the development of acoustic technology changed the course of seabed mapping, and then “lead and line” measurements were gradually replaced by echo sounders. The German Meteor Expedition surveyed the South Atlantic Ocean using echo sounding equipment and other oceanographic tools.
“During this expedition, among other findings, the continuity of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was observed, now known as being by far the largest geological formation on earth. Seismic methods also came into use during this period, with the first records in water-covered areas in 1926 and the first important marine survey with this technique conducted in.
Between 1950 and 1960, Aderoju noted that “substantial progress and development was made on electronic stabilisation, interferometric modulation and positioning improvement. In the 1970s, new perspectives for seabed acoustic mapping were driven by a revolutionary multi-beam bathymetry system’’.
He added: “In 1977, during the Jean Charcot Expedition, the first non-military versions of multi-beam systems were employed—seabeam and hydrochart, for deep and shallow waters. These systems have enriched the future of the seabed mapping and the quality of bathymetric surveys, already enabling the inference of seafloor characteristics from backscatter data.
“After these enhancements to acoustic systems, the science related to seabed classification leveraged major developments and innovations, e.g., geomorphological and habitat classification using geophysical data such as bathymetry and side scan sonar. In recent years, the use of correlations between acoustic properties and biological and/or geological parameters has been successful, but this type of transformation of acoustic properties into physical properties has been used in submarine acoustics for substantially longer.’’
“Over time,” he continued, “seabed mapping gained further importance due to technological developments, providing substantive contributions to a better understanding of tectonics and ocean spreading. In addition to the scientific importance and essential relationship with other oceanographic fields, the role of seabed mapping has been paramount for national and international limit jurisdiction issues, first established in 1982’’.
How much of the ocean has been explored?
For centuries, humankind has been fascinated by the sea, exploring it and venturing towards the blue horizon in search of new land and adventures.
Today, the ocean makes up about 71 per cent of the earth’s surface, and it is the biggest ecosystem of the planet, holding 99 per cent of habitable space in the world. As much as we try to picture its vastness, however, it remains almost incomprehensible.
According to other experts, the five main ocean basins, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Oceans contain 94 per cent of the world’s wildlife and 97 per cent of the water on our blue planet.
Despite the central role it obviously plays in our planet’s balance, and the appeal the ocean has held to men since the beginning of time, we actually do not know much about its mysteries. In fact, most of the waters remain unexplored, uncharted and unseen by our eyes.
The ocean is facing some serious issues that compromise its balance and that of the whole planet. One of the main threats to its balance is ocean pollution through oil spills, littering and improper manufacturing plants.
Therefore, seabed mapping, according to other stakeholders and experts who spoke with the paper, is closely related to fields such as economic zoning, natural resources management and the exploration of marine mineral and oil and gas resources hence the reason why the NPA and NIMASA need to collaborate to establish the centre to stem the cycle of criminalities on our waters, create job, protect our maritime domain from illegal fishing and oil bunkering, protect the health of our nation and generate more revenue from the sea resources.