The SeaKeepers 1000™ - 8 Years Later
After more than six years of active deployment, the SeaKeeper
1000™ ocean monitor is proving its effectiveness even
as the data needs and research challenges of marine scientists
shift and increase with our rapidly transforming planet.
In 2002, two years after the first SeaKeeper 1000™ unit
was deployed, the technology was awarded the prestigious Tech
Museum Award "For Technology Benefiting Humanity."
This enormous recognition came just a year after the United
Nations Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and
the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued joint certificates
of participation in the Global Ocean Observing System to all
SeaKeeper-equipped vessels.
It is worth noting that since its auspicious beginnings,
the SeaKeeper 1000™ system has become even more recognized
throughout the scientific community for its unique ability
to provide reliable and extremely cost-effective data. The
reason for this remarkable robustness and utility lies in
three design elements that distinguish it from other ocean-monitoring
systems and processes:
First, the SeaKeeper 1000™ equipment draws seawater
into itself, via pumps, rather than making its measurements
while immersed in salt water. This means the equipment is
easier and far more inexpensive to maintain, saving considerably
in cost over the term of its use. Further savings come from
the fact that the measurements are taken in a dark, enclosed
environment, leaving the equipment free of bio-fouling. Making
the SeaKeeper 1000™ even more efficient in this regard
is an automatic chlorination system that virtually eliminates
fouling in the equipment.
The second differentiating factor is its modularity. Unlike
other monitors, the SeaKeeper 1000™ is a ‘plug
and play’ system that offers scientists the flexibility
and cost-efficiency of interchangeable sensors. This standardization
of sensor architecture will, like the peripheral industry
that developed around the IBM PC two decades ago, lead to
manufacturers’ willingness to develop new sensors for
deployment in SeaKeeper 1000™ equipment deployed
around the world.
Third, the SeaKeeper 1000™ is a "packaged"
design that not only includes everything from water intake
to measurement to data transmission to data storage, but also
is paired with input from a sophisticated weather array, allowing
scientists to see what’s happening in the water as well
as what’s occurring just above the water’s
surface. Often the interaction of wind and water are crucial
to finding linkages and drawing conclusions.
Originally designed for deployment on private yachts, the
SeaKeeper 1000™ is now drawing attention from many quarters
for applications unintended back at the Society’s
start in 1998. The monitoring system is currently being
used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
on fixed buoys as well as on NOAA patrol and research vessel
for the U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries Program.
Even more exciting is that NOAA and other institutions are
now looking at possible deployment of the SeaKeeper 1000 in
extensive coastal monitoring networks, including around the
rapidly melting ice in the Arctic region.
The fact that our system precisely measures air temperature,
sea temperature, salinity and acidity (pH) is a special feature
with real scientific benefit particularly in the area of monitoring
the changing climate. Melting arctic ice affects salinity.
As explained elsewhere in this Report, carbon dioxide dissolves
in the ocean affecting acidity. In the last few years salinity
and pH are understood to have enormous consequences. Our compact
cost effective system that takes these measurements and has
the capability to add new sensors is quite an accomplishment.
SeaKeepers originally was founded as a humanitarian organization.
Following this precept, the Board of Directors this year approved
the pro bono licensing of the SeaKeeper 1000™ technology
for the public good, and welcomes academic institutions, governmental
agencies, and industry to use this flexible, adaptable design
for even more extensive oceanographic monitoring in the future.
In addition, SeaKeepers has transmitted its internationally
collected oceanographic and meteorological data freely to
the world.
As new technologies pave the way toward more novel discoveries
and inventions, thought is going into the next generation
of the SeaKeeper 1000™ design. Nevertheless, the original
concepts pioneered by SeaKeepers are still receiving acclaim
and endorsement from leading scientific institutions. Either
way, the future of this SeaKeepers invention is guaranteed.  |
