INSPIRE is in the news again this week with another great piece by Ambar Espinoza and Elizabeth Harrison of Rhode Island Public Radio, telling the story of early environmental results from the construction of Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm. Features Professors Jim Miller and Bob Kenney of URI Graduate School of Oceanography and INSPIRE’s very own Jeanine Boyle. This marks the second time this week that our company has been featured in reports by Rhode Island Public Radio.
Deepwater Wind contracted Rhode Island-based INSPIRE Environmental to conduct a range of environmental assessments that helped secure permits to build the Block Island Wind Farm and its underwater cable. Much of this work continues as the Block Island Wind Farm moves into its next phase of electricity production.
Rhode Island Public Radio reporter Ambar Espinoza recently joined INSPIRE scientists on one of our monthly fish-trawl surveys in the vicinity of Block Island Wind Farm. Read all about the great work that INSPIRE is performing for the nation’s first offshore wind turbine array.
The nation’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Block Island will start producing electricity any day now. It’s a pilot project that will change the way the people on this small island power their homes and businesses. They’ve relied on importing diesel fuel up to this point.Today we bring you a story about another group that has a stake in this project: fishermen. A small crew of fishermen has been working with scientists to gather data and learn how fishing will or won’t change around the wind turbines.
We’re getting excited for Oceanology International North America. INSPIRE will be exhibiting a booth, and Dr. Drew A. Carey will present a talk at this great event. Drew will be speaking at Oceanology International from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm on Feb. 14, 2017.
Voyage to See What’s on the Bottom: Transforming Ocean Data into Accessible Information
Drew is Managing Partner at Inspire Environmental, in Newport RI. He is a recognized expert in the fields of benthic ecology, sedimentology, and environmental monitoring. Throughout his 35-plus year career in applied science, he has advanced technologies and procedures to better visualize and communicate the health of the seafloor. With the goal to “make marine science understandable,” INSPIRE’s team of scientists and technical specialists conduct seafloor surveys worldwide, using technology that allows for less disruptive sampling, more accurate interpretation, and more accessible presentation. The team has developed immersive displays that guide viewers through a data-rich, virtual journey of the seafloor.
Find more information about Dr. Carey’s talk here:
INSPIRE Environmental is onstage today at TEDx Newport! We’ll be sharing a worm’s eye view of the seafloor and the innovative camera technology Inspire’s scientists invented. The talk will provide a brief introduction to Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) and then discuss novel ways that our scientists have worked to visualize the seafloor.
2016 marks the inaugural TEDx Newport event. INSPIRE would like to thank the whole TEDx team who worked so hard to make this event a success. We are proud to be showcasing our work to the community of Newport, RI during this event.
Thanks to all of our friends and colleagues, both new and old, who visited our booth at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) Offshore WINDPOWER 2016 conference. We are excited for the delivery of the nation’s first watt of offshore wind power! Congratulations Deepwater Wind, and our home state of Rhode Island, for making history.
One of the Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) camera’s most powerful attributes is its ability to convey ecological information in a format that most people can understand quite easily: a picture.
Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) technology has been used extensively internationally and throughout the United States. For the past 40 years, SPI has been used to monitor the environmental impacts of dredged material disposal, to characterize sediment quality, to monitor the impact of construction activity on the seafloor, and to search for pollution “hot spots”. This optical coring device works like an upside-down periscope and takes cross-sectional images of the upper 20 cm of the seafloor.
As one of the developers of the technology, we had the privilege of introducing it to the government of Hong Kong in 1993, and it became a key component of the four-year, territory-wide monitoring program associated with the massive dredging/land reclamation that was a key aspect of the new Chep Lap Kok airport construction. We introduced the technology in many areas outside of the United States, including Canada, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, China, and Azerbaijan. SPI is a powerful technology that provides an innovative and cost-effective solution to many marine environmental monitoring programs.
A schematic view of the Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) and Plan view (PV) camera in action.
What Sediment Profile Imaging can Measure
Sediment Profile Imaging allows rapid data acquisition during field sampling (the camera is literally “pogo-sticked” across the seafloor). A wide variety of physical and biological parameters can be measured from each image.
Grain-size major mode and range (gravel, sand, silt, clay).
Small-scale surface boundary roughness.
Evidence of erosional or depositional environments, allowing identification of high and low kinetic energy areas.
Subsurface methane gas pockets (evidence of high Sediment Oxygen Demand).
Depth of the apparent Redox Potential Discontinuity (RPD).
Calculation of the Organism-Sediment Index, allowing rapid identification and mapping of disturbance gradients in surveyed areas.
Presence of epifauna.
Surface microbial aggregations.
Infaunal Successional Stage.
Evidence of excess organic loading and high sediment oxygen demand.
Benefits of using Sediment Profile Imaging
Because traditional seafloor sampling techniques are expensive and time consuming, an efficient sampling strategy for surveys can be an enormous aid to completing an efficient survey. SPI aids in determining the location of traditional sampling stations by rapidly characterizing the variation in benthic sedimentary and community conditions. Limited sampling resources can be allocated to the optimum sampling locations to accurately characterize the variance that exists in a particular area. All too often the results of monitoring programs reveal that a particular parameter of interest has either been over- or under-sampled as a result of “flying blind” initially and then sticking with the initial station locations that were arbitrarily selected from a nautical chart.
INSPIRE scientists deploying a Sediment Profile Imaging (SPI) camera on the deck of a survey vessel.
Rapid and cost-effective data collection and analysis
Large areas of seafloor can quickly and efficiently be surveyed with SPI. For many monitoring objectives, SPI technology can provide the necessary answers without the need to collect grab samples or to repeatedly enumerate and identify individual invertebrates and assemble long species lists each time a sampling study is performed.
Gradient delineation between sampling locations accurately
Because the SPI camera can obtain pictures rapidly and efficiently, it can supplement traditional sampling methods. SPI achieves this by “filling in the gaps” between traditional chemical and biological sampling locations. The camera can accurately delineate gradients in biological community type, organic loading, or sediment grain-size between fixed station locations.
Sediment Profile Imaging can measure bioturbation depth which can then be mapped.
Results that are easily understandable to a non-scientific audience
Many environmental programs have suffered because of their inability to convey results to regulators or a public audience who may lack a marine science background. One of the camera’s most powerful attributes is its ability to convey ecological information in an easily understandable format: a picture.
Over the past 10 years, we have come to realize that SPI technology’s most powerful asset is this ability. SPI was able to provide the decisive evidence in several environmental litigation cases concerning ocean disposal impacts. SPI technology proved that impacts were transitory and that a full ecosystem recovery had occurred.
Learn more about SPI by visiting our downloads library:
