Category: News and Notes

Over the weekend, US President Trump announced a 25% tariff on all products imoprted into the USA from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on imported Chinese goods.

As a result, we expect prices to increase from our partners Blue Robotics, Blue Trail Engineering and Cerulean. We suspect suppliers in other countries may also be affected.

Please bear with us as we wait to see how pricing will be impacted.

Research lead by Dr Brett Lewis at Queensland University of Technology investigated how a free-living mushroom coral moves and responds to light in its natural environment.

Using high-resolution time-lapse imaging, the team identified that Cycloseris cyclolites was able to move via pulsed inflation, a process where the coral inflates and deflates its tissue in rhythmic bursts to propel itself forward, like the movement seen in jellyfish, but much more slowly.

The corals prefer blue light sources, similar to the spectrum found in deeper water. And their pace is approximately 220mm in 24 hours.

Full articles at: NYTimes Science 22jan25 and QUT News 23jan25

British, American and Australian personnel have trialled underwater ROVs which could be used during Exercise Talisman Sabre, from mid-July 2025.

Talisman Sabre is intended in part to demonstrate how ROV, AUV and other technologies can be used to protect sea cables and destroy mines. Commodore Marcus Rose, Deputy Director Underwater Battlespace Capability, said: “The exercise facilitated close collaboration in the use of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), with the aim of developing interchangeable seabed warfare capabilities at pace.”

2025 will be the first time HMAS Prince of Wales visits Australia.

Full article at: Portsmouth News 20jan25

Schmidt Ocean Institute researchers used sonar mapping, bathymetric surveys and methane concentration data to map four submarine canyons and 20 methane seeps off the coast of Chile.

Full article at: Discover Wildlife 17jan25

Finland has finished repairing two undersea telecommunications cables that were damaged in the Baltic Sea on 25 December 2024. The Eagle S tanker carrying Russian oil has been seized on suspicion that it damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecoms cables on Christmas Day by dragging its anchor dozens of kilometers along the seabed floor.

Full article at: Khaleej Times 06jan25