From Oil Spills to New Species: How Tech Reveals the Ocean

Machine learning is helping scientists track down hidden oil spills and pollution. Cris BOURONCLE / AFP
Machine learning is helping scientists track down hidden oil spills and pollution. Cris BOURONCLE / AFP
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From Oil Spills to New Species: How Tech Reveals the Ocean

Machine learning is helping scientists track down hidden oil spills and pollution. Cris BOURONCLE / AFP
Machine learning is helping scientists track down hidden oil spills and pollution. Cris BOURONCLE / AFP

The ocean covers nearly three-quarters of our planet but scientists say we have barely scratched the surface of what lives in our seas.
But new technologies are helping to change that, revealing hidden oil spills, speeding up the discovery of new species and uncovering how light pollution impacts marine life.
Uncovering hidden oil spills
Satellite imagery means large oil spills in the ocean are relatively easily detected. When a tanker crashes or a pipe bursts, scientists know where to look, AFP said.
But smaller pollution events can appear as nothing more than a thin streak against the smooth sea surface -- the maritime equivalent of a needle in a haystack.
"It used to take human analysts weeks if not months to be able to detect a single (small-scale) oil pollution incident," explained Mitchelle De Leon of US-based NGO SkyTruth.
The group harnesses machine learning to comb through large datasets of satellite imagery and find spills that might previously have gone undetected.
SkyTruth has revealed spills in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and helped expose pollution from shadowy Russian ships.
There are limitations to the technology, including determining the composition of a spill, but the group says it offers an early warning system for scientists, media and governments.
"We think of our tool as a starting point... to make hidden human pollution events more visible," said De Leon.
Understanding light pollution
We have long known that our obsession with lighting the night sky obscures the stars and confuses terrestrial animals, but what impact does it have on the sea?
To understand that, scientists need satellite images to show how light spreads from coastal megacities, as well as complex models that can calculate how light penetrates the ocean, said Tim Smyth, a marine biogeochemistry specialist at Britain's Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
Seawater generally absorbs more red light, but that can change in the presence of phytoplankton or high turbidity.
"We're able to program computers such that we can model the light field under the water with a high degree of accuracy," said Smyth.
His research found two million square kilometers (770,000 square miles) of ocean -- an area 10 times the size of Britain -- is affected by light pollution globally.
The effects are profound, from disrupting feeding by fish and seabirds, to interfering with coral spawning and the nightly migrations of phytoplankton up and down the water column.
The good news is "it's something we can do something about", said Smyth.
Switching off unnecessary illuminations such as billboards and redesigning lights to reduce "spillage" into the sky will bring down costs and carbon emissions while benefiting wildlife on land and in the sea, he explained.
Species discovery
Advances in technology have allowed us to reach the ocean's darkest depths but scientists estimate we know about just 10 percent of what lives in our seas.
And before we even realize a new species exists, "we are losing that diversity", said Lucy Woodall, a marine biologist and head of science at Ocean Census.
Launched in 2023, the global alliance of scientists aims to speed up the discovery of ocean species from coral to crabs.
That works in part by collaborating with high-tech, lab-equipped research vessels where researchers can immediately start work on collected specimens.
Genetic sequencing can now be done in the field, "which even 10 years ago would have been months and months worth of work back on land", said Woodall.
On average, it takes more than 13 years from finding a possible new species to officially describing it for science.
"We can't afford to wait for that," said Woodall.
The project encourages scientists to share findings sooner, with an explanation of why they believe a species is new.
It won't replace the slower work of proving new species with methods such as genetic testing but it can accelerate knowledge at a time of urgency.
The project has documented more than 800 new discoveries, which are shared on its open-access biodiversity platform.
"We want to ensure that companies, countries, and individuals really value the ocean and ocean life for what it does for them and our planet," said Woodall.



Private Lunar Lander Blue Ghost Falls Silent on the Moon after a 2-week Mission

Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)
Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)
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Private Lunar Lander Blue Ghost Falls Silent on the Moon after a 2-week Mission

Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)
Private lunar lander Blue Ghost’s shadow is seen on the moon’s surface after touching down on the moon with a special delivery for NASA, Sunday, March 2, 2025. (NASA/Firefly Aerospace via AP)

It’s lights out for the first private lunar lander to pull off a fully successful moon mission.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander fell silent over the weekend, wrapping up two weeks of science experiments for NASA. The end came as the sun set at the moon, no longer providing energy for the lander’s solar panels.

“Mission is completed,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim said via X late Sunday night. "But the Ghost still lives on in our hearts and minds for the journey it’s taken us on!"

The lander operated five hours into the lunar night as planned before it died Sunday evening. Photos of the lunar sunset and glow will be released on Tuesday, Kim said, The AP reported.

Blue Ghost launched from Cape Canaveral in January as part of NASA’s commercial lunar delivery program. It landed at the moon’s far northeastern edge on March 2. It carried a drill, vacuum and other science and tech instruments for NASA. Firefly confirmed Monday that all 10 experiments worked.

Late last week, Blue Ghost observed a total solar eclipse from the moon — a total lunar eclipse as seen from Earth.

The Texas-based Firefly became the first private company to land on the moon without falling or crashing after a string of failed missions by other companies over the past few years. Only five countries — the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan — have achieved a successful landing.

A Japanese company's lunar lander shared the SpaceX rocket ride, but took an even longer route to get to the moon. That lander from ispace is targeting an early June touchdown.

Another Texas company, Intuitive Machines, ended up sideways in a crater near the moon's south pole earlier this month, dooming the mission. It was the second incomplete mission for Intuitive Machines. Its first lander put the US back on the moon last year for the first time since the Apollo era after a less-than-perfect landing that hampered communications.

Firefly is already working on its next lunar lander and striving for one moon landing a year.