R/V Skagerak

SCOOT Ship and AUV days in the Baltic Sea

In the week  17 – 21 October AUV Ran will be doing field tests in the Baltic Sea, supported by R/V Skagerak. SCOOT invites small and medium sized companies, entrepreneurs and everyone with an interesting idea to join! SCOOT wants to hear from you, the offer is free of charge. This is a great opportunity to use a research vessel and an underwater robot, both top of the line with impressive sensor suits.

The field tests are planned mainly in the southern part of Baltic Proper, but also further north and possibly also along the Swedish west coast. (AUV Ran is preparing for the next field season in the Southern Ocean and project leader Anna Wåhlin wants to conduct sensor tests in suitable soft bottom locations, which can be found for example in the Bornholm Basin.)

The team who launched the AUV Ran under the Thwaites ice shelf.

SCOOT and Seacat at ‘Open Ship’ in Stockholm

Nice weather and an even better crowd! What more can one ask for when it is ‘Open Ship’? University of Gothenburg’s research vessel R/V Skagerak joined the event in Stockholm 9 – 11 June. SCOOT was very happy that Skagerak’s ship manager Louise Newman invited us to show the experimental autonomous platform Seacat on the aft-deck. This highlights the importance the university places on innovation and of being in the technological forefront of ocean observations.

The event allowed visitors to see the state-of-the-art  in ocean observation methods and technologies. On 8 June the event prestarted with groups of high-school students, on 9 June came crown princess Victoria, on 10 June came a long row of specially invited guests and decision makers, and on 11 June the general public was invited (fully booked quite early).

In addition to R/V Skagerak the event featured two more of Sweden’s research vessels, namely R/V Svea (used extensively by SCOOT partner SMHI and by SLU Aqua) and S/V Ocean Surveyor (used by Geologiacl Survey of Sweden).

More about 'Open Ship' in Stockholm 9 - 11 June, 2022

SCOOT ship days March 2022

On Friday 18 March we ended SCOOT’s ship week for this time. We plan to be back soon, hopefully with AUV Ran. As always we make it our mission to support entrepreneurs, small and medium sized companies, and basically anyone with an interesting idea. This week we made University of Gothenburg’s new research vessel Skagerak available. We could show images of the blue sky and the glittering ocean (yes, we had nice weather), but we would rather show the continuous data acquisition that goes on the inside of Skagerak. The photo above is from the vessel’s FerryBox system, for continuous measurements of surface water. Curious about the data? Get in touch with SCOOT.

Busy week it has been. Methods have ranged from the very established, like vertical profiling using CTD and sediment sampling using box corer, to the emerging (?) standard of sampling water for eDNA, with consultancy SeAnalytics AB.

At the end of the week we tested two prototypes of a simple 3D-printed temperature mini-logger. We made sure to deploy them at the same depth as the intake for the vessels FerryBox. Both SCOOT and the developing company Deepoid AB will be interested to see how well data from the loggers compare with data from the very well calibrated temperature sensor in the FerryBox system.

SCOOT supports innovation

Do you have an idea about how to get or use ocean data? Then SCOOT wants to support you, with ship time and autonomous platforms and robots, with sensors, expertise and networking. Here is what you should do:

  • Contact us. We want to hear about your ideas.
  • Follow us on Twitter, to learn first about our activities and offers.
  • Sign up for our newsletter, where we summarize what goes on at SCOOT.

SCOOT open ship day 12 November

On the 12th of November we open the door (even more than usual) to SCOOT and the gangway to new and shiny R/V Skagerak! On 15th of October the king inaugurated the ship, and now we welcome companies and entrepreneurs, who are interested in the most modern technologies for making observations in the ocean. This day serves as a learning and planning day for the coming SCOOT at sea days early 2022, when we make R/V Skagerak available, primarily for small and medium sized companies in western Sweden. 12th of November is an opportunity to

  • visit Sweden’s most modern research vessel,
  • meet representatives from the SCOOT consortium (University of Gothenburg, MMT Sweden AB, SMHI),
  • discuss how your company can use SCOOT’s resources, including R/V Skagerak.
We are very happy to announce this opportunity to visit our new vessel, and to plan for usage at sea. By making R/V Skagerak available we want to strengthen innovation as well as collaboration between industry and the university.

Place: Nya Varvet in Gothenburg (see maps below), it is only a 2 minute walk between the ship and SCOOT’s space.

Time: The ship will be open 9 am – 6 pm, on the 12th of November.

Welcome!

R/V Skagerak:
SCOOT: (exept on the 12th)
R/V Skagerak at home port Nya Varvet in Gothenburg. Photo by Thomas Dahlgren.

New R/V Skagerak delivered at SCOOT’s doorstep

It has been a long journey, since the new R/V Skagerak was ordered  by the University of Gothenburg back in 2013… But now she is ready! And SCOOT is glad to see her right outside of our space.

Overall, a berth at Nya Varvet in Gothenburg is the best alternative, as the quay can be easily adapted and there is proximity to university activities such as the SCOOT project and organisations such as MMT and SMHI.
Göran Hilmersson
Dean and head of the ship steering group

In an era of of robotics and accelerating automation of ocean observations, one might wonder if crewed research vessels really represent value for money? Sebastiaan Swart, director of SCOOT and head of the ship user group at University of Gothenburg, explains:

– Robots are great for going where ships cannot, like under a glacier, and for making long endurance missions. But research vessels are still indispensable. There are a multitude of ocean data collection that require a combination of advanced technology and human hands and eyes. For this we need vessels like the new Skagerak. In the future we will see ever more robots collecting ocean data, but we will not see fewer research vessels.

More about R/V Skagerak: