World’s first ocean lander research lab opens for discovery day

The Principal of the University of Aberdeen, Professor C Duncan Rice, will today (Friday, September 28) preview the University of Aberdeen’s new state-of-the-art centre for sub-sea research, the first of its kind in the world.

The preview of the new £1.2million Oceanlab facility situated at the University’s Culterty Field Station, Newburgh, opposite the Ythan Estuary, will take place at 12 noon. Monty Priede, Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Zoology will give a presentation on the Oceanlab and their fascinating work to invited guests and colleagues. This will include deep-sea material filmed on an expedition that some of the Oceanlab staff participated in two years ago and which was featured in the BBC’s latest natural history series, Blue Planet.

This event will offer a rare chance to see how the groundbreaking research of scientists at the University’s Department of Zoology is revealing a whole new environment in some of the previously hidden depths of the world’s oceans.

The North East community of Newburgh has also been invited to preview the centre on Saturday, September 29, any time between 1.00 and 6.00pm. The North East public will get a rare chance to see life on the ocean floor and will also be able to view videos and films, displays and exhibits, posters, an instrumentation workshop, and deep sea fish samples.

Professor Priede said: “This new facility will enable engineers and scientists to work together, creating totally novel robot vehicles which will carry cameras, sonars and laser holography systems, allowing us to observe animals living as deep as 6,000 metres (3.5miles). It creates for the University of Aberdeen a world-class

capability in exploring the world’s oceans.”

The Oceanlab is the first purpose-built ocean lander laboratory in the world. Located close to the centre of the North Sea oil industry, the Oceanlab has direct access to the most sophisticated sub-sea industry suppliers in Europe. It will attract visiting scientists and engineers from all over the world to develop and test experiments to be deployed in international research progammes.

The facility will allow engineers and marine scientists to work together to build and test lander equipment using immersion and sea-water investigation tanks, environmental and vibration test rigs, and image analysis suite. The Oceanlab has a large tank with 250mm thick steel walls. The water is chilled to just above freezing and pressurised to replicate the cold, dark and high pressure conditions at depths of 6,000m below sea level

The Principal of the University of Aberdeen, Professor C Duncan Rice said the creation of the new Oceanlab facility was a great achievement for the marine scientists and technologists based at the University of Aberdeen. This highlights the scientific strengths that Aberdeen, as a leading institution, has in these areas.

PHOTOCALL DETAILS:

Press are invited to come along to this discovery day. A photograph opportunity has been organised and interviews can be arranged with the Principal of the University of Aberdeen, Professor C Duncan Rice and Professor Monty Priede at the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab facility, Culterty Field Station, Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, at 12 noon on Friday, . The Principal will give an opening speech, and following this he will stand next to the test tank and can be photographed releasing a lander.