Marking both Earth Day 2025 this week and initiating a global mission to raise awareness and share knowledge about the ocean’s crucial importance for a sustainable future, a year-long expedition to cover the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea has now got underway.

The Norwegian tall ship, Statsraad Lehmkuhl set sail this month on a journey around the world and an expedition that aims to bring together sail training, ocean research, diplomacy, and education – visiting 27 ports across three continents along the way, including an historic transit through the Northwest Passage.

Experts and marine scientists selected from nations and educational institutions around the world will embark on their own legs of the 12-month journey, which includes a six-week stint on board for researchers from Plymouth Marine Labs here in the UK and a team of young academics from the European Space Agency.

Having set sail from Tromsø this week, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl tall ship is now home to 50 students and more than 20 lecturers and ocean experts. In addition, over 40 citizen scientists will actively participate in the scientific research conducted aboard the ship.

In a message to those embarking on the voyage, Christine Meyer, governing mayor of Bergen in Norway, said: “You will return home having changed the world just a little, in that you are also a scientific expedition. You will return home with a cargo of knowledge. And that is something that we all need in these times of climate change, and of environmental challenges.”

Students will embark on a six-week voyage from Reykjavik in Iceland to Nice in France during which they will not only participate in lecture on satellite oceanography but be immersed in a programme of collecting in situ measurements and analysing near-realtime satellite data to compare with measurements taken from the ship and with ocean model fields.

The ship’s arrival in Nice on June 3 will be timed just ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference starting on June 9, when nations will convene in the hope of galvanizing urgent action to conserve and sustainably manage oceans, seas, and marine resources while advancing the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14.

A European Space Agency Advance Ocean Training Course will be a critical part of the year-long One Ocean Expedition.

The European Space Agency’s Craig Donlon, organiser of the expedition, said: “The importance of oceans to our planet cannot be over-estimated, basically ‘no blue, no green.’ Covering 74% of Earth’s surface, oceans are dynamic and involve complex processes that have huge implications for the health of our planet and all living things.

“Since the advent of the satellite era, our understanding of ocean science has come on leaps and bounds, but with climate change upon us, the demand for ocean resources rising and shipping routes busier than ever, it is imperative that we continue to advance our scientific knowledge and understand how oceans are being impacted so that, ultimately, appropriate decisions can be made.

“Thanks to high-quality and frequent measurements from satellites, we can now observe the global ocean every few days – transforming our ability to understand and protect this vast blue ecosystem. 

“As a space agency, arguably with the best Earth observation programme in the world, passing on know-how to the next generation of scientists is our duty, so that they are not only equipped but also inspired to find new ways of using satellite data to understand and help safeguard our planet for the future.”

Four years before the expedition got underway, the 108-year-old sail training training ship was equipped with some of the most advanced research equipment available, built to target specific research questions such as carbon dioxide exchange between the ocean and atmosphere and ocean acidification, the biodiversity of the world’s oceans, the amount and distribution of human impact on the oceans (pollution, noise, microplastics), in addition to data for verification of satellite observations.

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