Meeting “Gaia Blu: an infrastructure at the service of the marine scientific community”
A meeting dedicated to the new research ship
On February 15, 2024, the meeting entitled “Gaia Blu: an infrastructure at the service of the marine scientific community” was held at the Marconi room of the CNR Centrale, dedicated entirely to the new research ship of the CNR. During the day there were numerous speeches to present in details the new outfitting of the ship, the on-board instrumentation, the first campaigns conducted in the Mediterranean, and also the research perspectives and management structure. The Director of the Department of Earth System Sciences and Technologies for the Environment (DSTTA), Fabio Trincardi, retraced the main stages of the preparation of the Gaia Blu ship, a real technological jewel, that once was the FALKOR vessel ship of the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI). The changes implemented make the Blue Gaia a ship suitable for operating in ocean waters. During the first “Jamme Gaia“ cruise, a survey comparable to one of about twenty years earlier was carried out by researchers and technologists of the Neapolitan CNR which will allow to evaluate the evolution of the instrumentation on a technological level and the evolution of the seabed under the pressure of natural processes, near the Gulf of Naples. While the campaign “PIONEER: Processes in the IONian Sea: Exploring, Experimenting, Researching” was dedicated to the Ionian Sea and allowed to test the on-board instrumentation; details of the numerous tests will soon be available on a page dedicated to the ship. Space was given to the problem of acquiring new instrumentation, and in particular of a Remotely Operated Vehicle- ROV, for which a careful evaluation is required; and on the importance, necessity, opportunity and also, of course, the complexity of third-party management of the ship The meeting was also an opportunity to explicitate the actual need to have other smaller ships to recreate the CNR’s naval fleet; the economic considerations and the comparison with otherEuropean Research Centers dedicated to the sea were punctually discussed by Andrea Miccoli, of CNR-IRBIM. Also for CNR-IRBIM, colleagues Andrea Berardinelli and Emilio Notti are involved in the activities of Gaia Blu. The speeches and participation in the day showed that all the researchers involved in the activities of the Gaia Blu ship have carried out a crucial service for the growth of the Institution with great generosity. Finally, it was announced that the selection of applications opened in December for the working groups had been concluded, with a total of 38 applications received and the formation of the following groups: 1. Management of the ship access process, 2. Logistics and Investments, 3. Data management, 4. Communication and outreach. Here you can download the program of the entire day.
15.02.2024 - Ancona