OCEANOGRAPHY is the multidisciplinary branch of science covering the physics, chemistry, geology and biology of the world’s oceans. It matters to us all, because it informs our understanding of the earth’s climate and the cycles essential to life. And Scotland has long played a leading role in this essential field.

An example is the Oban-based Scottish Association for Marine Science, one of the oldest oceanographic organisations in the world, having been founded during the 1870s. It is still showing the rest a clean pair of heels, or rather, fins.

It announced yesterday that its robotic underwater Seagliders have now gathered the equivalent of five years of oceanographic data, most of which was collected in the past 18 months. Seagliders collect data down to 1,000m as they slowly submerge towards the seabed and then rise to the surface, using fixed wings and a hydrodynamic shape to create a forward movement. They allow oceanographers to long-distance observations, often in hard-to-access regions that ships rarely frequent. As well as collecting large quantities of new data, the Seaglider programmes have played a key role in the training of a new generation of scientists and technicians.

As we all know, strange things happen at sea. It is good to know we are still playing a leading role in understanding them.