The ocean is of great importance to earth, not just to coastal nations but also to landlocked communities and countries. The ocean regulates our planet. It produces vast amounts of the oxygen we breathe and acts as a global climate control system by absorbing, storing, and releasing heat and gasses. It is a source of food and essential nutri…
Trawling has been recognised as a profoundly damaging practice with lasting nega-tive consequences on seabed ecology and marine life since its first mention in a 1376 parliamentary petition. Mobile fishing gear (including any dredge, trawl, or similar device) is used to tow or push a net with a boat to catch fish. Bottom trawl-ing, in particular, grew from a need to kee…
The global production of plastics continues to increase year on year, with 460 million tonnes produced in 2019 (OECD 2022). This is likely to increase, with projections from a business-as-usual scenario predicting a threefold increase in the amount of plastics use, waste, and cumulative presence in aquatic environments (OECD 2022). The most recent …
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the core driver for the fourth technological revolution,following the revolutions in steam technology, electricity technology, and computersand information technology. Since its emergence in the 1950s, AI has fully improvedproductivity, affected and changed the production structure and production relations.UnderstandingthehistoryofAIplaysanindispensableroleinthes…
Cold seeps are seafloor manifestations of methane-rich fluid migration from the sedimentary subsurface to the seabed and into the water column, and ultimately, some of the methane may even reach the atmosphere (Boetius and Wenzhöfer 2013). Marine hydrocarbon seeps are common features of continental margins worldwide (Suess 2020). Because of their re…
On a recent visit to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, I lingered a little while longer than usual in my favorite exhibit: the Sant Ocean Hall (see oppo-site page). Wandering with no telos in mind, I let myself bask before bioluminescent beings, tremble in awe at the improbability of the extremophiles, and gaze up like a supplicant at the model of Phoenix, a North Atlantic…