For Podcast 18, August 2025, Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall brings an update from our recent attendance at SubOptic 2025, a conference and trade show of the global subsea cables industry. We were invited by Alcatel Submarine Networks, one of the big three subsea cables companies, owned by the French state and Nokia. Alcatel are enthusiastic contributers to the work of the UN Ocean Decade Corporate Data Group.

The public don't always realise that the vast majority of international internet traffic is carried on thousands of kilometres of fibre optic cable laid across the ocean floor, not bounced off satellites. As such, the industry is one of the few that conducts bathymetric measurements at global scale - albeit along narrow tracks - and so is an essential source of new, and legacy, data for Seabed 2030 & GEBCO. Indeed from the earliest days of GEBCO, bathymetry supplied by cable layers has formed an important source of data.

In this episode we also introduce our Head of External Relations, Pegah Souri - she has been associated with the project for six years and is a key person for ensuring that the outside world knows about our work.

In the second part of the podcast, Steve runs through the topics covered in his presentation to industry at SubOptic, and finishes with a preview of the imminent publication of the Seabed Mapping Special Edition of the Marine Technology Society and Society for Underwater Technology journal, Volume 59 Number 2.

Find out more about Seabed 2030 at www.seabed2030.org, contact the editor the podcast Steve Hall here, or Pegah Souri here.

Thank you for listening!

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

In this episode Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall reports on the UN Ocean Conference that was held in Nice in June 2025, with the main podcast going through a summary of what happened during the event, and then a 20 minute appendix where he reads through the Nice Ocean Action Plan.

Too much happened in the many side events to cover all aspects, so we've focused on the parts where we were present.

As well as Steve's narration, there are short recordings of Nippon Foundation Chairman Sasakawa speaking in Nice during the Global Ocean Data Sharing side event on Monday 9th June, and a clip of Seabed 2030 Director Jamie McMichael-Phillips during his panel session at the Economist World Ocean Initiative event on Tuesday 10th June.

Steve also updates listeners on the latest update to percentage of ocean floor mapped, which was announced as 27.3% on World Hydrography Day, 21st June 2025.

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 episode 16 of the Seabed 2030 Podcast, recorded in April 2025, Seabed 2030 Head of Partnerships Steve Hall speaks to David Parker, who is Head of Hydrographic Programmes at the UK Hydrographic Office, Chair of the International Hydrographic Office Hydrographic Surveys Working Group, and one of the founding senior team for the UK Centre for Seabed Mapping.

David talks about his career, his role at UKHO, how his team work with customers from industry, government and the international community to deliver essential mapping products that ensure safety of navigation, inform marine spatial planning and seabed management, grow the Blue Economy and help deliver the UK's commitments to international programmes such as the UN Ocean Decade of Science for Sustainable Development.

He speaks in detail about the role of the new UK Centre for Seabed Mapping, and finishes with a call to industry bodies, Learned Societies and Professional Institutes to get involved.

Find out more about the UKHO https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-hydrographic-office and the UK Centre for Seabed Mapping at https://www.admiralty.co.uk/uk-centre-for-seabed-mapping

Find out more about Seabed 2030 at www.seabed2030.org and contact 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