Yachts for Science takes an innovative approach to protecting the world’s oceans. Marine researchers and yacht owners team up to embark on important ocean research.
What is its mission, according to the organization’s website? To improve “ocean access” for scientists and researchers by using the thousands of yachts sailing around the world as a platform.
The organization is the result of the efforts of multiple groups partnering around a common mission to explore and protect the oceans.
“We saw an opportunity to bring yachts and scientists together,” Rosie O’Donnell, project leader at Yachts for Science, explained in Superyacht Story.
O’Donnell continued, “The scientific community has a hard time finding time on ships. …The yachting world has a resource-rich (and well-meaning) community that often takes opportunities to support science.” I’m looking for it.”
Our oceans are the world’s major ecosystems. As the Marine Stewardship Council explains, they are “essential to life on Earth, regulating our climate and providing much of our oxygen.” The ocean not only plays a vital role in our survival, but also provides food and labor sources for billions of people.
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However, much of our ocean remains unexplored, according to Yacht for Science. This results in “no scientific standards” for measuring the status and condition of this vitally important natural resource (not to mention the plants and wildlife within it).
Limited data not only makes it difficult to gather information about deterioration and improvement, but also makes it difficult to develop appropriate mitigation plans, schedules, and solutions. These will be needed as our oceans are under threat. As the United Nations states, “Climate change and human activities are deteriorating the health of our oceans at an alarming rate.”
The MSC emphasized this point, saying: “The stakes are high, given how the health of our oceans is intrinsically linked to our environmental, social and economic well-being.”
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Therefore, increased inquiry and education can lead to perspective-changing discoveries, important conclusions, and pioneering inventions.
Yachts are a surprising savior, as these boats are known to have an “inevitable history of causing ocean pollution” through their dirty energy use and waste emissions, according to Oceanweb. Introducing.
But Yacht for Science is moving closer to its goal of ocean exploration and conservation. We are trying to make it a shared mission rather than an adversarial one. This is another way that a possibly futile scenario can be turned into innovation and positive progress.
That’s why the organization works hard to get yacht owners on board, sometimes literally, O’Donnell noted. Rather than just renting out unused yachts, they “can also choose to host scientists and support this research.” (That hands-on approach is supported about 50% of the time, O’Donnell added.)
Think of Yachts for Science as an “ocean crater” rather than an Airbnb on the water. This is the organization’s nickname that O’Donnell has heard on superyacht stories.
The organization has already matched scientists with multiple ships over the past few years, enabling research missions to study things like North Atlantic humpback whales and polar ecosystems in the Arctic and Antarctic.
“In many ways that’s true,” O’Donnell said of Tinder’s designation. “We look for the right combination between the ship owner and the lead scientist, the science project and the cruise destination, and then we make the magic happen.”
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