For our 25th episode, Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Stephen Hall speaks to Peter Burger of the UN Ocean Decade Corporate Data Group. Peter is on secondment from our key industry partner Fugro to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission headquarters at UNESCO in Paris, where he heads a team with a unique responsibility to facilitate the sharing and transfer of data gathered by industry into UN Ocean Decade programmes and projects such as Seabed 2030. It's not only bathymetry data, but a wide range of parameters needed by a number of the long term observing programmes.

In the interview, Peter talks about the work of the Corporate Data Group, how they engage with industry, and he encourages listeners to get in touch so that they too can contribute to global ocean knowledge.

You can find out more about the Corporate Data Group at https://oceandecade.org/ocean-decade-corporate-data-group/ and can contact Peter directly here.

Find out more about Seabed 2030 at www.seabed2030.org and contact Stephen Hall here if you have any comments, questions and would like to feature on a future episode.

Thanks for listening. Copyright Seabed 2030, 2026. Music by Emily Keep.

Revealing Hidden Depths - the Seabed 2030 Podcast
Find out more about our project at www.seabed2030.org
Brought to you by the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO

For the 24th episode of the Seabed 2030 Podcast, recorded in August 2026, Head of Partnerships Steve Hall speaks to Iain Vincent, Director & General Manager of ecoSUB Robotics, a specialist manufacturer of highly portable yet capable autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) based in the UK who have customers across the global ocean science and survey community.

Iain is a graduate in Marine Environmental Science from the University of Portsmouth, and was a founder member of the Society of Maritime Industries Marine Autonomous Systems Group who have done valuable work to establish safe operating procedures for autonomous vehicles in crowded coastal waters.

​In 2016 Iain was appointed as a Director of ecoSUB Robotics Limited, when the company was formed to spin out low cost AUV technology developed in collaboration between Planet Ocean and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). He was appointed General Manager in 2022.

In this interview we learn about the design of the ecoSUB family of vehicles, their range and depth capabilities, the kind of sensor, visual and navigation technologies that they use, and how the company works with customers to ensure that operators can feel confident using systems to carry out science and ocean survey work straight out of the box.

Unlike large AUVs, that require a specialist mother ship and cranes or gantries, even the largest of the ecoSUB family can be carried by two people, and launched from small boats or the shore. The smallest system is one-person portable and can even be launched from aircraft or surface drone survey systems.

ecoSUB and parent company Planet Ocean are strongly engaged in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development as technology partners to institutions and universities, and have a track record of supporting the work of Marine Learned Societies such as the Challenger Society for Marine Science and Society for Underwater Technology and others.

They became Industry Partners with Seabed 2030 in 2023 and their products directly contribute bathymetric data to help deliver the first global map of the ocean floor.

For more information contact iain@ecosub.uk or sales@ecosub.uk

To find out more about Seabed 2030 see www.seabed2030.org and to contact the editor of the podcast please mail Steve Hall here.

Revealing Hidden Depths - the Seabed 2030 Podcast
Find out more about our project at www.seabed2030.org
Brought to you by the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO

For our World Ocean Day June 2026 extra-length episode, Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall interviews Dr Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, better known as ESRI, and a leading exponent of how we understand data and share our discoveries for the greater good.

Dawn is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group for Seabed 2030 and holds many other honours - see here for her 'about us' page on the Seabed 2030 site and click here for her detailed cv. Many other links out there for Dawn, search for 'Deep Sea Dawn' and you'll find many links! Here's one from her page at ESRI

Her dive with Victor Vescovo to the Challenger Deep marked a career highlight in a long story of achievement that started modestly as a sea-going technician on board the JOIDES Resolution as part of the Ocean Drilling Programme in the 1980s.

In the episode Dawn talks about her long career, which has encompassed being a sea-going technician, 17 years as a professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State University, authoring more than 180 articles and 12 books on marine geographical information systems and more. Her latest book "Mapping the Deep" is available through ESRI and your regular bookseller.

Dawn is a keen cyclist, a fan of Charles Schulz's 'Snoopy', and an inspirational role model.

Other links - YouTube 'Making the Limiting Factor' click here

Laura Trethewey's book The Deepest Map as mentioned by Dawn.

YouTube Lego Stop Motion Diving Challenger Deep click here

Link to the story about Dawn's 'Snoopy' being archived by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich here

Episode recorded and edited by Steve Hall, click here to email. Find out more about Seabed 2030 here. Music and extra narration by Emily Boddy.

Copyright Seabed 2030, 2026.

Revealing Hidden Depths - the Seabed 2030 Podcast
Find out more about our project at www.seabed2030.org
Brought to you by the Nippon Foundation and GEBCO