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2007

05 November .07 - Transocean Receives Award from Citizen's Environmental Coalition

Through a revised Environmental Management System (EMS) and partnerships with the SERPENT Project and the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, Transocean has demonstrated that good environmental stewardship requires collaboration and partnership with external stakeholders as well as a strong understanding of offshore operations.
Read the article now

06 September 2007 - New images from Midnattsol, Norwegian Sea!

Check out the fantastic new photos from our recent visit to Midnattsol in the Norwegian Sea with SERPENT partners Statoil, Transocean and Oceaneering! The mission report will be online soon...

04 September 2007 - SERPENT feature in Marine Technology Reporter

Read all about the latest SERPENT activities and future studies in the Gulf of Mexico. View and download here.

31 August 2007 - Latest edition of SERPENT Newsletter

Read all about the SERPENT team's activities and offshore visits over the last quarter, including giant isopods in Venezuela and news from the Gulf of Mexico. Download here...

14 August 2007 - SERPENT at ICES Conference

Gulf SERPENT's Dr Mark Benfield will be presenting at the annual ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) Science Conference in Helsinki in September. Mark will be giving a presentation on zooplankton community structure and biomass in the mesopelagic and deeper layers. More details about the conference can be found on the ICES webpages.

01 August 2007 - SERPENT Offshore Visits

The last month has seen the SERPENT team visiting three sites offshore, two in the Norwegian Sea and one off Venezuela. The two Norwegian Sea sites were visited by new SERPENT Researcher, Dr Andrew Gates, and were made possible through our collaborations with Statoil, Oceaneering and Transocean and cooperation with Seadrill. More details will be available about these visits will be available on our Norway missions page soon.

Dr Daniel Jones has had the opportunity to create links in a new region for SERPENT this month, and is due to arrive back from a successful visit off Venezuela shortly. He has been hosted on Transocean's Sovereign Explorer, working with Statoil and Subsea 7. The water depth at the site is over 500 metres, and so far he has carried out several successful transects and captured several samples of fauna from the area that will be identified by new SERPENT collaborators at the Simón Bolívar University. More details coming soon!

19 June 2007 - SERPENT at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2007

The SERPENT project is proud to have been selected as an exhibit at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, which runs from the 2nd - 5th July. The event is hosted at the Royal Society's Carlton House in London, and is open to the public.
The Royal Society is the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth, at the cutting edge of scientific progress, founded in 1660. It supports many top young scientists, engineers and technologists, influences science policy, debates scientific issues with the public and much more. Everyone is welcome to visit the exhibition - more details here: http://www.summerscience.org.uk/07/

06 June 2007 - New SERPENT database recommended website of the week in Planet Science newsletter!

The Planet Science weekly newsletter has a circulation of 17,000 including primary and secondary school teachers, parents, students and science communicators. It is produced by NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts in the UK. The SERPENT database was the recommended website of the week in the latest issue (number 233).

01 June .2007 - SERPENT presentation at the Linnean Society of London

Dr Daniel Jones will today give a presentation at 'Linnaeus' Wake: 300 years of marine discovery'. The Linnean Society of London remains a leading forum for contemporary discussions on genetics, natural history, systematics, biology and the history of plant and animal taxonomy, and is the world's oldest extant biological society. Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. To celebrate the tercentenary of his birth and the arrival of the Swedish Ship Götheborg in London, a scientific meeting will be hosted today at the Linnean Society of London. The meeting will cover the historical importance of the SOIC and Linnaeus, life aboard an 18th century vessel, and scientifically will focus on marine systematic and taxonomic discoveries from the last three hundred years. It will show how in the age of DNA sequencing and deep-sea robotic submarines, much of marine science is still in the ‘discovery phase’, just as it was in Linnaeus’ day.

31 May 2007 - Latest edition of SERPENT Scene, our quarterly newsletter, out now!

Read about our outreach activities in Australia, our progress in the Gulf of Mexico and our work around the UK... Download

08 May 2007 - SERPENT Annual Report 2006

Download the latest SERPENT Annual Report! The report covers all the science, outreach and publications we have produced last year.

08May 2007 - New Most Wanted poster for North Sea region

Download the latest Most Wanted poster (download removed 2008) that covers the North Sea area.

10 April 2007 - IADC Conference

The 2nd - 4th April saw the return of the IADC's Environmental Conference and Exhibition, this year held in Amsterdam. SERPENT were present at the conference once again, with members of the team giving talks and a constantly busy exhibit. The event was a useful way of updating the industry on our latest developments, also allowing us to make new contacts and re-energise existing relationships.

19 March 2007 - National Science and Engineering Week

Running from March 9th - 18th, National Science and Engineering Week encourages people to find out more about the research being carried out around the UK. A series of events and open days allow children and adults alike to come and meet scientists, listen to talks and take part in science based activities. This year, the National Oceanography Centre held another successful Ocean and Earth Day, with over 1,200 visitors. SERPENT had a large exhibit at the day, with hands-on activities for kids as well as giving talks. Congratulations go to Mark Webster, aged 11, who won our Spot the Difference competition and went home with a DVD box set of the BBC Planet Earth Series!

16 February 2007 - Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

SERPENT has been selected to be one of the exhibitors this year at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. With thousands of visitors ranging from the general public and post-16 students to Fellows of the Royal Society, politicians and captains of industry, the exhibition will allow us to reach a wide audience to publicise our science. More details can be found on the Royal Society website, and watch this space!

07 February 2007 - BBC1 Scotland - Landward feature & Radio Scotland 'Out of Doors'

If you are in Scotland (or have Sky!), check out a SERPENT feature on the Landward programme which interviews Dr Brian Bett together with Subsea 7. The programme is going out on Sunday 11th February at 11:30am on BBC1 Scotland. You will also be able to watch it online on the BBC Landward website in the week following the broadcast.

18 January .2007 - New publications!

Check out the publications page for the latest SERPENT publications...

10 January 2007 - New and improved ROV Guidelines pack!

Are you in an ROV Team? Interested in participating in the SERPENT project? This pack gives you full details on how you can, from instructions on surveys to ad-hoc filming and photography. Download them here!

2006

04 December 2006 - BBC Planet Earth Series

A breathtaking exploration of our world, the BBC Natural History Unit's Planet Earth series continues on the 10th December with a programme entitled 'Ocean Deep', featuring a 30 tonne whale shark, speedy dolphins and a deep-sea octopus. The programme also showcases time-lapse footage taken at 2,000m water depth. This amazing footage was enabled through our links with the Discoverer Deep Seas and ChevronTexaco, Subsea 7 and Transocean, allowing a BBC camera crew to put a timelapse camera on the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico for several days. More details are here, and this episode is showing in the UK on Sunday 10 December at 9pm on BBC One/BBC HD (repeated Sat 16 Dec, 18:50 BBC Two).

01 December 2006 - Newsletter out now!

Download the latest bumper edition of SERPENT Scene, the quarterly SERPENT newsletter here!

23 November 2006 - New Canada section - collaboration with Chevron Canada Limited!

Visit the new Canada region section here... Expanding our geographical reach to the deep waters off the Canadian coastline, the SERPENT Project has recently formalised a partnership with Chevron Canada Limited to carry out research in the Orphan Basin area north of the Grand Banks, 390km northeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The region represents a relatively unexplored deep-sea location, both from an ecological and an oil and gas perspective.

16 November 2006 - BBC Radio 4: The Material World

The BBC Radio 4 science programme, The Material World, interviewed Dr Brian Bett from the DEEPSEAS Group at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton on Thursday November 16th. Brian discussed attempts to investigate the impact of drilling on deep-sea ecosystems using sediment analysis techniques enabled through the SERPENT Project. Full details about the programme can be found here, and you can 'listen again' (Brian's section starts at approx 13mins 30secs into the programme).

15 November 2006 - BP Horizon Magazine

An article about the SERPENT collaboration has been featured in the November edition of BP Horizon magazine. The feature focusses on the deployment of whalebones at the Schiehallion field, West of Shetland, off one of Subsea 7's ROV support ships. The study will look at the colonization of the bones by organisms such as marine worms, filming and photographing them using the cameras mounted on industrial ROVs. More details about the study will be on the website soon, so watch this space!

18 August 2006 - Marine Ecology Progress Series Publication

Read the new SERPENT Project publication by Dr Daniel Jones, Dr Ian Hudson and Dr Brian Bett, Effects of physical disturbance on the cold-water megafaunal communities of the Faroe-Shetland Channel. Marine Ecology Progress Series Vol. 319: 43 - 54, 2006

04 July 2006 - 11th International Deep-Sea Biology Symposium

The 9-14th July sees the next Deep-Sea Biology Symposium, held at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. Over 300 deep-sea biologists from around the world will gather to present their research, discuss new projects and swap ideas. Full details here...

03 July 2006 - Press visit to the Eirik Raude rig

Dr Janne Kaariainen and Lis Maclaren from the SERPENT team and representatives from new partner Statoil visited the Eirik Raude rig in the Norwegian Sea on June 20th with members of the Norwegian and Russian press. The Norwegian press team, from Norway's largest commercial TV station TV2, put out a short story about the project as part of an evening news programme, in addition to a feature on their website.

01 June 2006 - Dowload the latest edition of SERPENT Scene

20 April 2006 - Get the lowdown on our activities over the last year!

Download our Annual Report here to find out more about all the SERPENT projects, missions and events over the last period.

20 March 2006 - National Science Week Ocean and Earth Day hugely successful!

The Ocean and Earth Day held at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton on 18th March was a big success! Around 2,400 visitors to the centre took part in a variety of activities, and the SERPENT stand was extremely busy all day. SERPENT Outreach Coordinator, Lis Maclaren, also gave two packed-out talks about the project, showing some of the fantastic footage we have accrued over the last couple of years.

13.03.06 - National Science Week, 10 - 19th March

National Science Week is an opportunity for people of all ages to take part in science, engineering and technology activities. The SERPENT Project is participating at the Ocean and Earth Day to be held at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, on Saturday 18th March. There will be talks, demonstrations and activities - come and join us!

09 March 06 - SERPENT at the National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth

The National Marine Aquarium was the first aquarium in the United Kingdom to be set up solely for the purpose of education, conservation and research. It remains Britain's foremost aquarium, attracting over two million visitors since it opened in 1999. A new section of the aquarium, opening in March 2006, houses an interactive exhibit about SERPENT consisting of some of our exciting footage that can be viewed from an 'ROV control room'. Find out more by visiting the NMA website.

04 March 06 - The Saturday Review in the Daily Echo

Take a look at the SERPENT 3-page spread in the Southern Daily Echo - Download here! (3.7MB)

24 February 06 - Latest edition of SERPENT Scene: Download

Featuring our new partnerships and links, educational outreach and new staff.

23 February 06 - SERPENT features in Nature...

The world's most highly-cited weekly multidisciplinary journal features an article about the project this week. Read the article on Nature's website or download the magazine article here

30 January 06 - Hot off the press... the SERPENT Project is featured in two magazines.

The article in the NERC quarterly magazine, Planet Earth, gives an overview of the project together with recent findings and future avenues we plan to explore (download article). The latest edition of 'Drilling Contractor', the official magazine of the IADC (International Association of Drilling Contractors), describes the potential for the oil and gas industry to work with SERPENT and the success of the IADC conference in October (see below!). Download Drilling Contractor article

2005

15 December 05 - SERPENT Project and Subsea7 receive VIBES Commendation

VIBES is Scotland's leading business and environment competition, recognising business success achieved by improved environmental performance. Subsea7 and SERPENT were successful in achieving a Certificate of Commendation. Visit the VIBES website for more details.

20 October 05 - Successful SERPENT session at the IADC conference!

The International Association for Drilling Contractors held its first Environmental Conference from the 12-14th October in Norway. As part of the event SERPENT held a very successful dedicated half day session on the results of the project, our collaborations and ideas for the future. The conference included talks by project partners from industry and academic science as well as by NGO's such as Conservation Internation and Bellona, providing a new dimension to this flagship industry event.

20 October 05 - Giant Squid raise media interest in the deep ocean...

Following on from the pictures released of the giant squid at the end of September, watch the ITV news report on the findings. Our SERPENT Project Coordinator, Ian Hudson, is interviewed for his views. Watch video (2mins 40secs long) (8MB)

20 October 05 - Secrets of the deep...!

SERPENT Project Coordinator, Ian Hudson, makes an appearance on BBC South Today. The interview with anchorwoman Sally Taylor covers the background to the project and discusses some of the fascinating footage we have in our galleries. The interview is approximately 3.5 minutes long - watch it here! (10.6MB)

28 September 05 - The release of pictures of an adult giant squid (Architeuthis), taken by Japanese researchers Tsunemi Kubodera and Kyoichi Mori, have hit the headlines around the world today.

The legendary deep-sea animal was captured on film in its natural habitat at 1000 m depth. The bizarre creature has, as yet, never been captured on video, nor has a living specimen been retrieved. Here at SERPENT we have high hopes that we might capture some valuable footage of the elusive creature - we are certainly well placed to do so! In the mean time, check out the footage of an as-yet unidentified species of squid taken in the Gulf of Mexico...

27 September 05 - Little Geek!!

Earth Report is showing on BBC World again this week. The documentary describes SERPENT, interviews key members of the team and some of our oil industry partners. Showing at 16:30 GMT on the 27th September, 01:30 GMT and 07:30 GMT on the 28th September on BBC World. Read more about the programme here.

27 September 05 - PHYSORG.COM, a Science, Technology, Physics and Space News website, runs an article about SERPENT! Take a look...

27 September 05 - SERPENT Project featured on BBC News website! Read the article here...

08 September 05 - Win £500!! Take part in the 11th International Deep-Sea Symposium 2006 Image Competition.

Full details of image categories, guidelines and prizes can be found here. More details about the Symposium here.

25 August 05 - Take a look at the updated gallery section. We have added new images and footage from around the globe, including Norway, Nigeria and Angola.

15 August 05 - The Australian Museum becomes a new partner! Read more here...

18 July 05 - AS SEEN ON SCREEN!! SERPENT goes global in a new TV Documentary!

A new documentary as part of the successful Earth Report series was recently screened by BBC World around the globe. Going out to over 400 million homes, the documentary describes the SERPENT Project from its beginnings here in the UK to its new international collaborations and includes comments from acclaimed movie director James Cameron. Although yet to be screened in the UK copies will be made available very soon!! Find out more...

15 July 05 - SERPENT hits the headlines!

An article about SERPENT and collaborations between science and industry featured in a special edition of Harts E & P magazine. The issues showcased flagship projects from the USA and UK to show how the oil and gas industry is helping to support active science projects. Download article here!

10 July 05 - Darwin funding.

As part of the Darwin initiative stage 1 funding, SERPENT was successful in a pre-project funding award... Read full story here!

05 July 05 - New partnerships with Louisiana State University (LSU), Woodside Energy Ltd. and the University of Sydney. Find out more...

2004

01 November 04 - SERPENT Laggan Mission nominated for Innovation award.

01.11.04 - New SERPENT article in BP horizon magazine.

15 October 04 - Mauratania mission

Mauritania mission launched with Woodside Energy Ltd.

30 September 04 - Global Marine Systems become an associated project partner.

See the partners page for more information on how GMS will be helping SERPENT science

01 July 04 - SERPENT features in underwater photography magazine.

More

01 June 04 - SERPENT Featured in BP Global Magazine.

May 2005 - Fisheries Research Services become new scientific project partners involved with North Sea fisheries issues.

01 April 04 - SERPENT spotters guide re-launched

with new PBLJ footage and new images from the Laggan drilling Project

10 April 04 - New Project Partner - Kongsberg Martime Ltd.

More...

15 March 04 - SERPENT represented at SET for Britain event at House of Commons.

This gave MPs a chance to see some of the exciting images and results we have obtained as part of the project.

04 March 04 - Forum Update.

The first forum in Aberdeen went down a storm with the local media and the assembled audience from the oil and gas industry.
More....

02 March 04 - The SERPENT Project Forum is taking place at Transocean, Aberdeen on 2nd March 2004.

The Forum will showcase the latest work from the SERPENT project to current and future project partners within the oil and gas industry.
More....

23 February 04 - Transocean launch new environmental web pages to announce their global support of SERPENT.

Link.

22 February 04 - Underwater Contractor Magazine features SERPENT project in their latest edition.

Congratulations to Dan Jones on his first publication !! Download.

16.02.04 - SERPENT team are interviewed for documentary on unusual marine life by BBC news correspondent John McIntyre.

Link.

14 February 04 - The Scotsman and the Daily Mail (northen edition) both have two page spreads on the SERPENT project.

(View Scotsman article)

10.02.04 - SERPENT Team attend the premiere of the BBC Film "Deep Blue" in Leicester Square, London, as part of SERPENT's strengthening links with BBC's natural history unit.

Link.

02.04 - Discoverer Deep Seas discovers chemosynthetic cold methane seep community in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read more...

01.02.04 - SERPENT project article in International Ocean Systems magazine - Vol 8, issue 1 2004.

Download.

16 January 04 - Grampian TV feature the latest work of the SERPENT project on their "North Tonight" program.

You can watch a web movie of this broadcast here.