Maldives Minister Declares Nekton Mission a Success

12.10.2022
The Environment Minister of the Maldives says the knowledge acquired by local and international scientists - who have spent the past month mapping and sampling the previously unexplored depths of the world’s lowest-lying nation - will be vital to help policymakers manage and protect the marine environment.





Shauna Aminath was speaking on board the mothership of the Nekton mission, after herself diving to 250 metres aboard the Omega Seamaster II submersible which has been deployed as part of a joint endeavour by the Maldives Marine Research Institute and scientists from the pioneering UK-based Nekton Institute .

The craft is one of two submersibles on the mission which has spent the past month exploring the Indian Ocean off the Maldivian coast down to 1000 metres below the surface ,studying current and previous impacts of sea level rise.

Nekton’s work - which has involved 11 Maldivian scientists and 14 from around the globe - has created greater understanding of the relationship between the deep and shallow ocean and has given fishermen a multi-dimensional mapping of the Satho Rahaa seamount in the one and a half degree equatorial channel - an area known as one of the country’s richest tuna fishing grounds.

The science team told the minister they have amassed 20 terabytes of marine date from more than 100 scientific deployments - information which is now owned by the Maldives and which will be studied in more detail then used to help Maldives policymakers to manage the development of tourism as well as the fisheries sector.






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Location: Maldives









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