How Fugro Tech uses to map the ocean floor

What is needed to map the oceans when the majority of the seabed in the world remains unseen and not – That is the question I investigated with Mike Liddell from Fugro, a company that uses technology to reveal what is under the waves.

In our conversation, Mike explained why investigating the ocean is as “working in heavy fog on a roller coaster” and how traditional tools such as light and radio signals are useless underwater. Instead, Sonar, robotics and increasingly AI come in to understand this hidden world.

Mike described the enormous scale of the challenge, of mapping areas that are larger than large cities to support offshore wind farms that feed our transition from clean energy of electricity.

With labor shortages and younger generations that are less willing to spend months at sea, Fugro shifts to external operational centers and non -torn surface vessels. These new approaches not only broaden the talent pool, but also dramatically use fuel – by no less than 95 percent compared to older ships.

What really struck me was the pace of change. A few years ago, offshore ships struggled with internet speeds that are reminiscent of dial-up modems.

Nowadays, satellite systems such as Starlink make real -time collaboration between the sea and coast possible. Add AI that data on the edge can process and make immediate decisions about where and how you can collect information, and you start seeing how Marine Research is going into a new era.

This episode is a glimpse into that border and how technology the way we understand, reform and worry our blue planet.

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