STORY MLV MINISTER VISIT 20221003 NR IAV
HEADLINE: MALDIVES MINISTER DECLARES NEKTON MISSION SUCCESS
DUR: 4.15
LOCATION: NORTH MALE ATOLL,MALDIVES
SHOT OCTOBER 2,2022
SOURCE: NEKTON
RESTRICTIONS: FREE ACCESS ALL PLATFORMS,ALL TERRITORIES IN PERPETUITY MANDATORY ON SCREEN CREDIT : “COURTESY OF NEKTON”. NO ARCHIVE RESALES
STORYLINE
The Environment Minister of the Maldives says the knowledge acquired by local and international scientists - who have spent the past month mapping and sampling the previously unexplored depths of the world’s lowest-lying nation - will be vital to help policymakers manage and protect the marine environment.
Shauna Aminath was speaking on board the mothership of the Nekton mission, after herself diving to 250 metres aboard the Omega Seamaster II submersible which has been deployed as part of a joint endeavour by the Maldives Marine Research Institute and scientists from the pioneering UK-based Nekton Institute .
The craft is one of two submersibles on the mission which has spent the past month exploring the Indian Ocean off the Maldivian coast down to 1000 metres below the surface ,studying current and previous impacts of sea level rise.
Nekton’s work - which has involved 11 Maldivian scientists and 14 from around the globe - has created greater understanding of the relationship between the deep and shallow ocean and has given fishermen a multi-dimensional mapping of the Satho Rahaa seamount in the one and a half degree equatorial channel - an area known as one of the country’s richest tuna fishing grounds.
The science team told the minister they have amassed 20 terabytes of marine date from more than 100 scientific deployments - information which is now owned by the Maldives and which will be studied in more detail then used to help Maldives policymakers to manage the development of tourism as well as the fisheries sector.
NORTH MALE ATOLL , MALDIVES OCT 2,2022
1. Minister going through final safety briefing in cockpit
2. Omega Seamaster II submersible launches into waters of North Male Atoll
3. Minister inside Omega Seamster II under water and also being filmed from second submersible whilst first descending to 250 metres, then rising to 120m then 60 metres to view marine life before returning to surface
4. Minister disembarking after submersible recovery to deck of mothership RV Odyssey.
5. Minister meeting Nekton science team - is shown animation of multi-beam mapping of Satho Rahaa seamount
11. SOUNDBITE(English) SHAUNA AMINATH, MALDIVES ENVIRONMENT MINISTER
“ Knowledge obviously will help us to protect it (the ocean) because then we know which areas we need to protect, which areas we need to manage properly, and also how we manage development of tourism as well as the fisheries sector. “
12 Two shot Minister and Interviewer
13 SOUNDBITE(English) SHAUNA AMINATH, MALDIVES ENVIRONMENT MINISTER
“For any adaptive measure that we take in the future we have to understand how our islands have adapted in the past and I think with this information, with this mapping , this really clearly gives us a lot more information than we have ever had about how our islands are formed and how it adapted to previous events of sea level rise. “
12. Minister with fellow Maldivian scientists before then departing RV Odyssey, Nekton mothership.
To download the media briefing in full, please click through on the link below:
3 October 2022
