With tools like Google Earth at our disposal, we have an understanding of our land masses like never before. With just a few clicks of a mousepad you can journey from your home to Uluru in Australia, the Colosseum in Rome, New York’s Times Square – or even venture up Mount Everest.

But have you ever paused to wonder what is going on under our seas – besides the view which a short snorkelling excursion can provide you?

Given that the ocean covers over 70% of our planet, its relative mystery is somewhat curious.

But it is the deep, unknowable nature of many of our oceans that has left researchers grappling for information for decades.

And it’s no surprise, since the ocean is, by its very nature, not particularly hospitable to human exploration.

However, there are many benefits to a deeper understanding of our great oceans. And with their vastness a clear barrier to true, thorough understanding a project known as Seabed 2030 is seeking to redress that factor.

Through a global project, Seabed 2030 – a collaboration between The Nippon Foundation and General Bathymetry Chart of the Ocean (GEBCO) – aims to gather data from thousand of participants around the world, to produce the most comprehensive map of our global seabed in history.

Of course, the mapping of the seabed is nothing new – a project on this scale has simply never attempted before.

So, pooling their resources, GEBCO and The Nippon Foundation have built the technology and framework to allow contributions from seafarers and researchers around the world to come together into a digital map, aiming to input all existing data (currently held in staggered locations all over the world) and cover as much of Earth’s ocean floor by the target date of 2030.

Why 2030? Well, this is the year that marks the widely agreed-upon critical deadline for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to safeguard our planet against the worst effects of the burgeoning climate crisis.

As a climate-focused initiative, a huge countdown to this most vital of target years occupies a prominent position on the organisation’s website.

But why map the ocean floor at all, instead of focusing on other, more pressing climate initiatives?

Well because the data we, as a terrestrial species, can gain from seabed mapping is vital. Not only in helping seafarers to navigate our oceans safely, there are a significant number of economic and climate-forward reasons to map the ocean floor fully, as Seabed 2030 explain on their website:

“There are many benefits to having a complete map of our ocean. Knowing the seafloor’s shape is fundamental for understanding ocean circulation and climate models, resource management, tsunami forecasting and public safety, sediment transportation, environmental change, cable and pipeline routing, and much more.”

And with only 6% of the seabed adequately mapped at the time of the project’s conception in 2017, the organisers saw an opportunity to create a meaningful project that could make shipping and underwater operations more efficient and therefore eco-friendly, preserve vital underwater habitats, and change the lives of coastal communities – especially in encountering the climate crisis and what is to come.

With all pre-existing data inputted onto their digital map, any blackspots will inform future mapping missions to ensure that resources can be targeted at the most understudied areas.

And even with five years still to go, the project is having significant successes.

In February 2025, Seabed 2030 celebrated another 1.4 million square kilometers of seabed map on the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) – at much higher resolution than ever before, providing incredible amount of detail for researchers and seafarers exploring the region.

In a news post on Seabed 2030’s website, Martin Jakobsson – Co-Head of Seabed 2030’s Arctic and North Pacific Regional Center – explained the leap forward in mapping the Arctic seabed, thanks to the new technology and collaborative approach:

“The release of IBCAO Version 5.0 is a testament to the collaborative effort of the Arctic research community and our dedication to overcoming the challenges posed by the extreme Arctic environment.

This dataset not only furthers our understanding of the Arctic seabed, but also exemplifies the power of teamwork in advancing global knowledge.”

Tackling the climate crisis and all the challenges that our environment presents required detailed understanding, and Seabed 2030 is central to our understanding of the 70% of our planet that we can’t live on.

And what’s more, this valuable data will be free for anyone to access, from the comfort of your own home.

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