XPrize offers $7M incentive to explore oceans, build better sea-floor maps

The hope is that the technology will also help researchers identify things such as sources of pollution and compounds that could be of medical benefit.

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XPrize, a 20-year old non-profit whose boardmembers includeElonMusk,AriannaHuffingtonandLarry Page, tries to solve major globalchallenges by creating and managing large-scale incentive competitions.XPrize has awardedmore than $30 millionin prize money so far. Its six active competitions, including today's,will award roughly another$90 million.XPrizesays itplans tolaunch two more ocean-based prize competitions by 2020.

CBC News spoke with Jyotika Virmani, anexpert in oceanic and atmospheric sciences andXPrize'ssenior director of prize operations, about the new ocean-focussedcompetition and the untapped potentialof the deep. Here are excerpts from theinterview.

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What's the importance of thisXPrize?

This prize really addresses the understanding piece. How do we understand what'sgoing on in the oceans, because without that understanding, it's very hard to value something,and without valuing something, it's even harder to really care.

Why is mapping the deep sea so important?

Ninety-five per cent of the ocean is unexplored. In fact, we have better maps of Mars.Every time we go,we always find something new. For example, we estimate that there arethree million shipwrecks down at the bottom of the ocean.

What benefit do you see from detecting shipwrecks?

These shipwrecks provide an insight into human history.The 22 wrecks that werefound off the coast of Greece about two months ago were dating from 700 BCto the 16thcentury. Historians are actually now re-evaluating how humans transported goods across theMediterranean back in the day.

What are some other potential benefits of the Ocean XPrize?

Other discoveries from the ocean include medical breakthroughs. There's a Caribbeansponge that has a compound that is used in AZT, which is a drug that's used in the treatment ofAIDS. And then I know there's also an investigation using compounded treatment for cancer andAlzheimer's.

Do you see any potential drawbacks of partnering with Shell in terms of their commercialinterests,such as wanting to exploit natural resources?

Shell and XPrize are aligned in their goals to the discovery aspect of this prize, whichreally is to help the perilled oceans through innovation,creating radical breakthroughs that willhelp to advance our understanding and care of the ocean. The technology can be used forassessing pipeline leaks and things of that nature. In order to find natural resources like oil andgas, you actually need to look beneath the seafloor. That's something the challengeis notaddressing.

Does the competition have any other goals?

We also do it to provide access to some of the recent virtual reality technology, to provide access to the general public through some of the photosand high-resolution images that can come up from the deep.We want to inspire the public.

And by making people interested in what's there, it does make them care and value thatenvironment. It does make them want to preserve it more. We want to help create an ocean thatis healthy, valued and understood.Only three people have gone down to the MarianaTrench, the deepest part of the ocean, so it's really out of reach for many of us, and it would bewonderful to see the new world that exists down there.

What are some of the technical challenges for competitors?

The technical challenges are the great pressure, the speed we are pushing theinnovation to reach, the area that we want to map, and also the high-resolution map of thesea floor.

What would be the Ocean XPrize's biggest triumph?

I would like the Shell Ocean Discovery XPrize to be known as an XPrize thathelped to get 100 per cent of the seafloor mapped at 5metreor higher resolution.It's an audacious, yet achievable competition, just like the other XPrizes. Is itpossible we will not have a winner. So we have seen that with every XPrizecompetition a community developed of like-minded individuals who may be in the field alreadyorjoined the field from other areas. And so it actually pushes forward all the technologytogether.

How good are non-governmental initiatives like the XPrize in taking on audacious goalslike mapping the ocean, compared to governments and private institutions?

XPrizes are really large incentivized competitions, they've got multiple goals. We doattract people from outside the traditional environments that deal with that particular issue, andthey then take on new approachesand they result in truly innovative breakthroughs.For examples, the Ansari XPrize, awarded in 2004, was a spaceXPrize, to get up to three people up to 100 km into the air.What thattriggered was the development of the private spaceflight industry, which is now in excess of $2billion 10years later. Through that we have multiple private space flights organizations.Actually, Richard Branson bought the winning technologyand turned it into Virgin Galacticas we know it.

Do you see the competitionleading to the creation of large companies making money in a sustainable, environmentallyfriendly way from water?

That is one of the core pieces behind the XPrize Ocean Initiative. We wantsimultaneously to understand the ocean, we do want to value it, and part of that value system isnot just economic value, but also sustainable value and appreciation of what an amazing resourcewe have in the ocean. And then we want itto be healthy, so it can continue in a sustainablemanner to provide us with those benefits; the ocean right now gives us 50 per cent of theoxygen that we breathe and it provides food to billions of people on this planet.

BenjaminBathke is a freelance journalist who covers entrepreneurship, startups and innovation,and a Fellow in Global Journalism at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto.Twitter@BenjaminBathke