The Underwater Technology Podcast

This is part 1 of a discussion between our former CEO Steve Hall and oceanographer Don Walsh.  How did Don end up on submarines? 16:42 Don sees the bathyscaphe for the first time (check out how he pronounces it too - I’ll use his pronunciation as the default from now on, it’s scaphe with an ‘a’ like cat) 19:20 Taking USS Rasher to 300 feet, before long he’d be at 36000 feet 25:55 The deep dives 30...

Episode 40, 17th December 2020 - This week former SUT CEO Steve Hall , SUT Publications & Communications Officer Emily Boddy , and SUT Council Member Andrew Connelly answer the listeners' questions on the underwater world with the expert help of SUT friends in various marine industries. How much of the seabed have we mapped?  What are the records for saturation diving, and is it really wo...

Episode 39, 10th December 2020 - This week SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews acclaimed author and specialist in open source intelligence 'H I Sutton' about his work documenting and illustrating via his books & Covert Shores website http://www.hisutton.com the secretive world of swimmer delivery vehicles, AUVs, military submarines and a particular niche as THE specialist author on the sha...

Podcast episode 38, 3rd December 2020 - this week SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Professor Ralph Rayner, who has served the global ocean science and technology community in many capacities since the late 1970s. Ralph's unusually broad career has included periods in research, industry, policy, and supporting international sustained ocean observing at governmental level on both sides of the Atla...

Podcast episode 37a, 27th November 2020 - in a change to the advertised schedule, this week we're using an edited audio version of the webinar that Nick Swift, chair of the Society for Underwater Technology's Defence Special Interest Group, gave on 16th November 2020. You can view the video version on YouTube at https://youtu.be/mpRxaoFT1QM Nick talks about the role of the SIG, the proje...

Podcast 36, 19th November 2020 - this week SUT CEO Steve Hall speaks to member Vahid Walker, founder & CEO of Walker Subsea engineering about the innovative subsea engineering sector in North East England, where an industry that was once dominated by heavy engineering such as shipbuilding has adapted to the requirements of technology-driven innovation, support for emerging industries, and wher...

Podcast Episode 35, 11th November 2020 - this week SUT CEO Steve Hall speaks to Adrian Phillips, Chair of SUT Middle East Branch about his career, the founding of SUT's first Branch in the Middle East, and the rapid growth in the region for companies engaged in subsea engineering, technology and services. Adrian highlights the importance of ADIPEC as the key trade show and networking opportun...

Podcast episode 34, 5th November 2020 - SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews David Ince of Reed Exhibitions, the company behind Oceanology International , Offshore Europe and All-Energy . David speaks about the role that exhibitions and conferences play in supporting the underwater technology community through knowledge sharing, awareness building, an opportunity to network and encourage the next generat...

Podcast episode 33, 29th October 2020 - SUT CEO Steve Hall interview Chris Gilson, General Manager of Canada's 2G Robotics (now part of the Sonardyne Group) about the company's role in bringing dynamic laser scanning to the subsea sector, which has enabled users to visualise underwater structures in great detail, and can even be used effectively for mine field scanning. The talk includes...

Podcast 32, 22nd October 2020. This week SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Peter Bromley, who has recently been appointed as the new Engineering Director of Seiche Water Technology Group. He talks about their line of products, including the Autonaut autonomous surface vehicle, how underwater sound measurements are used across industry, and about the challenges of making sustained ocean observations at...

Pod 31, 15th October 2020 - SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Luke Alden, a Mechanical Designer working for International Submarine Engineering in British Columbia, Canada. Luke's background is in industrial design, working on projects such as the design of aircraft cockpit instrument layouts and watertight doors for lifeboats. He moved to Canada and joined ISE, a company that has been a pioneer...

Episode 30, Thursday 8th October 2020 - SUT CEO Steve Hall speaks solo with an introduction to the ' Blue Economy ' - the wide range of ocean activities such as offshore energy, fossil & renewables, deep sea minerals, offshore aquaculture, pharmaceuticals, leisure, defence and the associated legal and policy services that are needed to support it. Also about the autonomous systems an...

Podcast episode 29, 1st October 2020. This week SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Alastair McKie, Director of Remote Operations for Europe and Africa at Fugro. Alastair explains that advances in digital communication & control technology now enables operators of offshore systems, & their associated seafloor infrastructure, to bring staff onshore, and that ultimately almost all staff who curren...

Podcast 28, 24th September 2020. SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Moya Crawford - who was the Society for Underwater Technology's first female Fellow - about her fascinating life in deepwater salvage & decommissioning. Moya literally 'ran away to sea' from the island of Foula age 17 with the man who became her husband, Alec Crawford, to salvage the wreck of the 'undiveable&apo...

Podcast episode 27, 17th September 2020 - This week SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews David Strachan, who writes as Strikepod - see https://www.strikepod.com He's an author specialising in imagining future scenarios where rival autonomous systems engage in conflict in the underwater battlespace in various ways - not just combat, but by attaching themselves to seabed infrastructure, injecting payl...

Pod 26 - In an extra-length episode, SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews John Englander, author and expert advisor on sea level rise. In his long ocean-focused career that has included serving as CEO of the Cousteau Society, running a diving business, advocacy work and much more, John has gained an international reputation as a trusted source of knowledge on a range of marine issues and is an acclaimed...

Episode 25, Thursday 3rd September 2020. SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Professor Gwyn Griffiths, who has had a long career pushing the boundaries of new technology in ocean engineering within the oceanographic sciences community, starting as keen young scientist at school in Holy Island, North Wales, building underwater communications equipment while still a student. Gwyn Griffiths received his B....

August 27th 2020, in today's episode of the Underwater Technology Podcast, SUT CEO Steve Hall speaks to solicitor Andreas Dracoulis, a partner at Haynes and Boone LLP helping clients resolve problems in the energy, shipping and construction sectors. The focus of discussion is the subject of consequential loss - an area of contract law where an offshore operator (corporate or individual) may f...

Episode 23 of the SUT Underwater Technology Podcast features Steve Hall interviewing Lou Cooperhouse , CEO of innovative San Diego company BlueNalu who aim to be one of the first to market with sustainable, tasty, real fish meat (not a vegetarian substitute) made from cultured cells - 'Cellular Aquaculture' rather than wild-caught fish. You're making fish muscle tissue, not the head...

Episode 22, 13th August 2020 - In a longer than usual episode SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Dr Jon Copley about his career in deep-ocean exploration and research. Jon was an SUT-sponsored student back in his university days, and has gone on to become one of the world's leading experts on the deep ocean environment, currently he's the Associate Professor in Ocean Exploration & Public...

Podcast 21, 6th August 2020. This week SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews PhD student Karen Boswarva of the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Dunstaffnage, Scotland, about her almost-finished doctorate using the SAMS Gavia Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) 'Freya' to conduct environmental surveys in sea lochs, and overseas on fieldwork in Chile. Contact Karen via the SAMS website (...

30th July 2020 - this week SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Professor Ed Hill, OBE, who is Executive Director of the UK's National Oceanography Centre , which is based on two sites in Southampton & Liverpool. The National Oceanography Centre is the United Kingdom’s centre of excellence for oceanographic science, with a remit to provide national capability and leadership for big ocean science...

For podcast 19 SUT CEO Steve Hall interviews Mick Cook about his long career in offshore site investigation, geotechnics and geophysics. Mick talks through how he entered the sector in the 1980s, how the technology and techniques have evolved, and how particular incidents & individuals influenced and shaped how he learned to interpret and add value to the data that constantly-improving instrum...

SUT Underwater Technology Podcast episode 18, 16th July 2020 - Steve Hall interviews Alexander Fuglesang of FASTsubsea & FSubsea AS, Norway, about subsea pumping systems - essential tools for offshore industry, be it traditional oil and gas, future carbon capture & storage, deep sea mining and even aquaculture - fish farms turn out to also be major users of subsea pump systems. Many human...

Judith Patten MBE is one of those people who isn't a marine engineer or scientist but has nonetheless Made Things Happen for our broad offshore community for years. She's been there in the background, organising trade shows and events, facilitating meetings between companies, researchers and policy makers, lately in particular a champion of the offshore renewables sector via the show All...