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www.sea-technology.com March 2015 / st 59 at University of California, Santa Bar- bara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, with support from Ocean Conservancy. The study found that more than 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste en- ters the oceans from land each year, and that fgure may be as high as 12.7 million metric tons. That's one to three orders of magnitude greater than the reported mass of plastic foating in the oceans. Using the average density of un- compacted plastic waste, 8 million metric tons (the midpoint of the esti- mate) would cover an area 34 times the size of Manhattan ankle-deep in plastic waste. According to the study, countries with coastal borders—192 in all—dis- charge plastic into the world's oceans, with the largest quantities estimated to come from a relatively small number of middle-income, rapidly developing countries. The top 20 countries ac- counted for 83 percent of the misman- aged plastic waste available to enter the ocean. Reducing the amount of this waste by 50 percent would result in a nearly 40 percent decline in inputs of plastic to the ocean. The researchers suggest solutions that could reverse the trend, includ- ing waste reduction and downstream waste management strategies, such as expanded recovery systems and ex- tended producer responsibility. Indus- trialized countries can take immediate action by reducing waste and curbing the growth of single-use plastic. New Report: Decadal Survey Of Ocean Sciences The new report from the National Research Council, "Sea Change 2015- 2025 - Decadal Survey of Ocean Sci- ences," identifes eight strategic pri- orities for the next 10 years that will continue to advance scientifc under- standing of the ocean, as well as assess the infrastructure needed to support this research. In addition, the report provides recommendations for aligning current and planned infrastructure and bud- gets with science priorities to achieve these research goals. Among the prior- ity areas are the rate and impacts of sea level rise; climate change effects on marine ecosystems; and better meth- ods for forecasting geohazards, such as tsunamis and earthquakes. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the leading funder of basic research in the ocean sciences, and the decadal survey was undertaken at the request of the Division of Ocean Sciences at NSF. The committee for the decadal survey gathered input from the ocean sciences community through presentations by scientifc and academic leaders, literature reviews, virtual town hall meetings and discus- sions with scientists. To help determine priorities from the information they collected, the committee applied four criteria: transformative research po- tential, societal impact, readiness, and partnership potential. "This report will help to transform how we commit our national resources and further develop infrastructure for ocean science research," said Dr. Dan- iel C. Flynn, vice president for research at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Dr. Shirley Pomponi, research pro- fessor and executive director of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research, and Technol- ogy at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at FAU, is co-chair of the new Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences re- port. n Qimera is our new multibeam sonar data processing platform, built on the core technologies of QINSy and Fledermaus. QPS QINSy QPS Fledermaus QPS deliverS ProductS to ACQUIRE, PROCESS, VISUALIZE, SHARE The SoluTI oNS For your marITI me geomaTI cS daTa aNd marITIme ProjecTS coNTacT: SaleS@QPS.Nl or SaleS@QPS-uS.com www.qps.nl www.qps-us.com PROCESSING evolved ocean business Come and see us at: Southampton, UK 15 14-16 April 2015