Tell us about your company. When were you founded? What type of work to do you do and why is it important to marine technologists?

For the United States, November has our Thanksgiving, and I would like to start by thanking all of you have volunteered on MTS efforts. Thank you to the Section and Committee leaders, the 2021 MTS Awards Committee, 2021 Board Nominating Committee, academic advisors for our Student Sections, the Captain Don Walsh joint (with SUT) selection panel, Local Organizing Committees for OCEANS 2021-2024, Editorial board, Woman Leaders in Technology and Science organizing committee, the many presenters on our webinars, board members, and thank you to the fabulous HQ team who keeps MTS moving forward.

I would also like to thank Dr. Kathleen Herndon for her efforts as the MTS Director. She has been the MTS Executive Director for three years and her contract concludes in January 2022. As the Society continues to evolve, the MTS Board determined that the MTS ED needs significant marine technology experience and expertise to advance our goals. As of 10 November, we have opened the search for the new Executive Director. The position description and how to apply can be seen HERE. We ask each of you to distribute this widely.

The Marine Technology Society’ Houston Section, the largest Section of the Society, hosted its Annual Barbecue Social and Fundraiser on October 28th, 2021. This annual event has become a much-anticipated tradition along the Gulf Coast, attracting some 400-600 offshore-industry professionals and their guests. It was apparent by the registration numbers everyone was ready to get back out for some in-person networking.
This year’s event was hosted by DeepOcean at their facility located in North Houston. DeepOcean is a leading subsea provider, servicing any equipment with specialized expertise. DeepOcean delivers value to subsea markets; Inspection, Maintenance and Repair, Subsea Construction, with an extensive fleet of vessels, over 50 ROVS, and in-house tool manufacturing and extensive ready-to-use tool pool.

Message From the MTS Journal Editor
Alicia M. Mahon
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The Los Angeles Chapter of the Information Systems Security Association held a virtual meeting about Maritime Cybersecurity on November 17. Daniel E. Turissini, Chair, Marine Technology Society’s Maritime Cyber Security and Infrastructure Committee served on the panel for this event. Watch the event recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKV7pwSgwQE

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is launching its next Ocean Decade Laboratories event focused on A Clean Ocean, November 17-19. REGISTER HERE: https://events.oceandecade-conference.com/a-clean-ocean/preregistration

Today, November 4 at 2 p.m. ET, tune into Maritime TV for Preparing for the Summit, a pre-event webcast for Oceans in Action 2022 scheduled for March 7-10, 2022 in Biloxi, MS. Oceans in Action/Port Security Summit is co-hosted by MTS and the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology (MSET).

Watch here: https://www.maritimetv.com/Events/Oceans-in-Action-2022

A successful conference can be measured in the impact it had on its participants not only during the event, but in the industry advancement and connections sustained long after the final networking session took place. OCEANS 2021 San Diego-Porto has gone the distance and a month after the conference closed, its contributions to marine technology are making waves!

During OCEANS 2021 San Diego-Porto, MTS held a town hall, Connected Oceans with Bristlemouth: Bridging Public and Private Sector to Launch Open Standard, moderated by MTS Vice President of Publications & Communications, Liesl Hotaling and featuring panelists Mike Wardlaw, Office of Naval Research; John Waterston, US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); Jason Thompson, Oceankind; and Tim Janssen, Sofar Ocean. At this event, attendees learned all about Sofar’s new Bristlemouth ocean sensing technology designed to make ocean data gathering easier and more productive. The technology’s potential uses include climate research, weather forecasting, and offshore renewable energy. We congratulate MTS Corporate member Sofar on this technology advancement. For more information read here: https://www.deeperblue.com/new-bristlemouth-ocean-exploration-hardware-standard-unveiled/

MTS reached out to Jhunehl Fortaleza, Project Manager at AquaGoat to learn more about the company and the work they do. Read the interview below.

Q: Please tell MTS members about your company. When were you founded? What type of work to do you do and why is it important to marine technologists?

 A: AquaGoat is an up and coming, yield-generating social cryptocurrency centered around protecting our oceans. Founded in April 2021, members of the AquaGoat ecosystem earn interest from all network activity while benefiting the planet and their charitable partnerships. With every single transaction, 1% goes to the AquaGoat Ocean Blue Fund, enabling cryptocurrency enthusiasts to passively contribute to helping the oceans. All AquaGoat token holders also get to vote on who receives those funds each cycle. Anyone who works toward the well-being of the planet's oceans, waterways and marine life can partner with AquaGoat. Each partnership is unique and personally crafted around both parties' needs.  These can be anyone who partners with us, from nonprofit organizations to individual scientists working on ocean projects struggling to get funding elsewhere. Additionally, the team helps partners learn how to open their own crypto wallets that crypto investors can continuously donate all types of cryptocurrency to indefinitely. AquaGoat will also be featuring profiles about each of its partners on its website along with their crypto wallet address so that potential crypto donors can learn more and donate even if a partner does not win the community vote. In less than six months, AquaGoat has been able to donate over $38,000 to eight beneficiaries. These numbers will grow drastically now that AquaGoat has migrated to Version 2 of its smart contract.

First Canadian Ocean Enterprise Study quantifies the size and activity of Canada’s “New” Blue Economy and its contribution to the global ocean sector

• Winners carried out the Five Deeps Expedition described by a distinguished member of The Explorer’s Club as “The most ambitious exploration expedition of the century”

The Marine Technology Society (MTS) and The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) are proud to announce that the 2021 Captain Don Walsh Award for Ocean Exploration has been won jointly by Commander Victor Vescovo, USN, Retired and Patrick Lahey for the 2019 Five Deeps Expedition and further dives of scientific or historical interest in subsequent years.

In 2015 Commander Victor Vescovo proposed a goal of finding and diving into the five deepest spots in the world’s ocean with dives taking place in the Atlantic, Southern, Indian, Pacific and Arctic oceans. This feat required not only a unique diving submersible but also fielding a specially equipped survey and support ship.