New mapping system to reveal mystery

Steve Menzies
As you fly above the vast Pacific Ocean, have you ever imagined what lies below its deep mysterious currents?
Physical Oceanographer, Jens Kruger, says we still know more about the surface of Mars than the ocean floor.
But our knowledge about the Pacific is starting to radically change, thanks to an exciting project by SOPAC, the Pacific Islands Applied Geosciences Commission.

New images of the Pacific seabed may help to unlock potential dive sites for the tourism industry and identify important marine habitats and potential marine protected areas.

This system is already helping to improve harbour navigation and important commercial activities such as pearl farming.

The new mapping system may be of great assistance to those Pacific countries now progressing claims to access minerals, oil and gas reserves beyond their existing 200-mile economic zones.

The process of determining the boundaries of their Exclusive Economic Zones beyond 200 nautical miles will be critical to securing exclusive development of resources such as gold and silver, as well as organisms living on and beneath the seabed.

Kruger is the lead scientist on an extensive project that has completed 30 mapping expeditions in 14 Pacific Islands countries.

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH: This work, undertaken as part of a European Union-funded project to “Reduce Vulnerability in Pacific Islands States”, is the first time a systematic approach has been taken to map the floor of the Pacific Ocean adjacent to our main islands groups.

The project, which began in 2002, is scheduled for completion after one final mapping expedition to Atiutaki in the Cook Islands later this year.

A research vessel using a multi-beam echo sounder system has produced digital images from as deep as 2500 metres and it has the potential to go as deep as 3000 metres.

This state of the art seabed mapping system can be used to help countries locate and manage important marine resources such as minerals, building aggregates and fish resources and habitats.  

Kruger says these maps can also help countries identify areas of geological instability that can potentially pose hazards such as submarine landslides, earthquakes and volcanic activity. 

“These images can also help to support the efficient and safe location of underwater infrastructure such as telecommunication cables and pipelines.

“They can also help to locate and monitor environmental hazards such as the large number of World War II shipwrecks that still lay scattered throughout the Pacific,” he says.

He adds these maps can also support the development of computer models to help study water flows and the possible movement of waste materials in lagoons and coastal areas. 

In Kiribati, these maps were used to identify possible sources of building aggregates in the South Tarawa lagoon and to determine any possible environmental effects of dredging the lagoon floor.

MAPPING COST: This initiative was undertaken due to concerns over the damaging practice of beach mining which is responsible for increasing coastal erosion on South Tarawa and also on many atolls throughout the Pacific.

Mary Power, Manager of SOPAC’s Ocean and Islands Programme, says costly mapping technologies like this would be beyond the reach of most of the individual Pacific Islands countries.

In addition to providing technical expertise, she says SOPAC’s role as a regional organisation has helped to pool financial resources from member countries and donors to obtain this important technology.

She adds the project could also have many long-term economic benefits for the region, as well as the more immediate ones mentioned.

“The Pacific region has only 0.6 million square kilometres of land but its combined Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) cover an estimated 30.6 million square kilometres which is equivalent to about 30 percent of the world’s total EEZ area.

“Pacific islands economies have significant extensive offshore economic interests in fisheries, minerals, aggregates, aquaculture, bio-prospecting for pharmaceutical compounds  and tourism.

This new seabed mapping system could help to enhance discovery and the sustainable management of many as yet untapped resources,” she says.

But today this exciting mapping tool is already helping to manage important commercial resources such as farming of black pearls in the Northern Cook Islands.

Seabed mapping of the Manihiki Lagoon led to the reorganisation of black pearl farms following a disease scare to ensure that overcrowding does not cause further disease outbreaks.

SOPAC hopes the seabed mapping system will also ultimately support the development of a Pacific Islands Ocean Information System for Pacific Islands Countries and Territories.

SOPAC hopes this system will help to support better decision-making and the sustainable development of the region’s bountiful ocean resources.