Keynote 1
Monday March 1

Prospects and Challenges of Offshore Wind Energy in Taiwan

Shiu-Wu CHAU

National Taiwan University

Taiwan is one of Asia’s most advanced offshore wind markets, supported by strong Taiwan Strait wind resources, procurement policies, and a net-zero pathway that targets offshore wind expansion toward 2030 and 2050. The sector has moved from demonstration projects to utility-scale deployment, attracting developers, suppliers, and marine contractors while encouraging domestic manufacturing and services. Offshore wind is central to Taiwan’s energy security, industrial upgrading, and decarbonization agenda. Yet progress remains uneven. Developers face grid-connection bottlenecks, local-content requirements, permitting delays, rising capital and equipment costs, and competition for vessels, ports, and skilled labor. Taiwan must manage fisheries coexistence, environmental monitoring, typhoon and earthquake resilience, and public acceptance as projects move farther offshore and toward floating technologies. Across Asia, offshore wind is expanding from early leaders in East Asia to other Northeast Asian markets, mainland and archipelagic Southeast Asia, and emerging markets across the wider Asia-Pacific region. The opportunity is large, driven by coastal demand centers, energy-security concerns, and climate commitments. However, many Asian markets still lack bankable auction designs, clear seabed-leasing rules, mature environmental review systems, transmission planning, and port infrastructure. Supply-chain concentration, currency risk, high interest rates, and extreme-weather exposure challenge delivery. Regional coordination on standards, finance, grids, and workforce development will be essential to promoting offshore wind across Asia. This talk will address the current state and challenges of offshore wind in Taiwan, as well as broader challenges across Asia.

Keynote 2
Tuesday March 2

Microbial Degradation of Neat and Enzyme-Embedded Biodegradable Plastics on The Deep-Sea Floor

Tadahisa IWATA

Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo

It is well known that the deep-sea floor is a major sink for plastic debris. Biodegradable plastics represent one approach to reducing the proliferation of plastic waste on the deep-sea floor. Microbes can decompose biodegradable plastics on land, rivers and seashore. In this paper, microbial degradation of representative biodegradable plastics (polyhydroxyalkanoates, biodegradable polyesters, and polysaccharide esters) at diverse deep-sea floor locations ranging in depth from 757 to 5,552 m will be presented. Poly(l-lactic acid) did not degrade at either shore or deep-sea sites, while other biodegradable polyesters, polyhydroxyalkanoates, and polysaccharide esters were degraded. The rate of degradation slowed with water depth. We analyzed the plastic-associated microbial communities by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and metagenomics. Several dominant microorganisms carried genes potentially encoding plastic-degrading enzymes such as polyhydroxyalkanoate depolymerases and cutinases/polyesterases.
More recently, we succeeded to prepare enzyme-embedded biodegradable plastics including Humicola insolens cutinase (HiC). The mechanical properties of enzyme-embedded polyesters remained comparable to those of enzyme-free polyesters. The biodegradation rate of enzyme-embedded polyesters was accelerated compared with neat-plastics. Analyses of the microbial communities on film surfaces revealed no significant changes in overall diversity or richness, although principal coordinate analysis indicated shifts in community composition. The enzyme-embedding strategy enables marine degradation of compostable polyesters while preserving material performance, thereby broadening the range of candidate biodegradable materials with potential to address persistent plastic accumulation in marine environments.

Keynote 3
Wednesday March 3

Frontiers of GNSS-Acoustic Seafloor Geodetic Observation: Recent Scientific Advances and Evolution of Unmanned Monitoring Systems

Fumiaki TOMITA

Tohoku University

Seafloor geodetic monitoring, particularly through GNSS-Acoustic (GNSS-A) positioning, has become an indispensable tool for understanding the physics of megathrust earthquakes and subduction zone processes. This presentation provides a comprehensive review of the current global and domestic status of GNSS-A networks, with particular emphasis on the evolution of observational infrastructure in Japan. A central focus will be the technological transition from conventional ship-based campaigns to autonomous operations using unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). In particular, the Japanese GNSS-A research group, led by Tohoku University and JAMSTEC, will present practical achievements and technical challenges identified over five years of continuous operations using Wave Gliders. The talk will also highlight major scientific outcomes enabled by these marine engineering advances, including the detection of postseismic deformation following the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake and the identification of strong interplate locking near the Kuril Trench. These results demonstrate the direct impact of marine engineering innovation on advancing earthquake science. Finally, the presentation will discuss future perspectives, including next-generation USV platforms, and outline a roadmap for the continued development of seafloor geodesy at the interface of marine engineering and Earth science.