The Pacific is the world’s largest ocean and a new citizen science initiative is empowering blue-water sailors to map marine biodiversity and ocean health in these waters by equipping them with the latest technology to gather important data while at sea.

Published 2 months ago

Reprinted with Permission from Island Cruising NZ/Down Under Rally

Sailors Help to Understand the Health and Function of the Pacific Ocean

Citizens of the Sea, a charity co-founded by Cawthron Institute (NZ) and New Zealand Geographic and supported by Live Ocean Foundation, recruited sailors in the 2024 Pacific Rally to help understand the health and function of the world’s biggest ocean.  The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest ocean and data gathered by sailors will hopefully provide crucial insights into the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss on the region.

On their voyage, the sailors were encouraged to help scientists understand the biodiversity and marine environments in the Pacific by collecting eDNA samples to identify thousands of species from a cup of water, create 3D model of coral reefs using the camera on their mobile phone or build a dataset of environmental variables using information on their instruments.

Biodiversity and Climate Change

The work is enabled through partnerships with Pacific NGOs including Vava’u Environmental Protection Association and Reef Explorers Fiji, together with the International Seakeepers Society and partners like Live Ocean. Genomics partner Illumina assists with eDNA samples collected by the sailors, which will be analysed to provide an unprecedented amount of data about biodiversity in the Pacific, and the impact of climate change.

25 boats departed from Opua in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, to take part in the Island Cruising Association’s Pacific Rally, an annual, four- to six-month passage through the Pacific Islands in May earlier this year.

“Collecting physical samples at ocean scale has always been an impossible endeavour for science. But understanding this massive ecosystem and the effect it has on our climate and maritime economies is a more urgent priority than ever,” says James Frankham, publisher of New Zealand Geographic. “Citizens of the Sea produced a set of sophisticated tools that were easy for sailors to deploy and separated the tasks of data acquisition and data analysis.”

Sailors and Cruisers are an Untapped Resource for Researchers

Cawthron Institute’s Dr Xavier Pochon, Citizens of the Sea’s Founding Scientist, said one of the best ways to survey the world’s oceans at scale is to collect and analyse eDNA data—the traces of biological material that all species leave behind in the environment.

“If we continually collect hundreds of water samples across large geographic scales, we can quickly isolate this eDNA in the laboratory, analyse it, and identify which species are present and how that distribution shifts in space and time due to climate change.

“With over 10,000 boats traversing our oceans at any given time, sailors on board cruisers, racers and commercial vessels represent an enormous untapped resource to help map ocean health.”

“The Pacific Rally is the starting point for Citizens of the Sea’s vision, but with the support of new partners and funders, we’d like to take this initiative global so that we can provide a new level of data for scientists, conservationists and decision-makers worldwide.”

Yachts are also equipped with technology for modelling the diversity and health of coral reefs using photogrammetric apps on mobile phones and will be continuously logging environmental data available on boat networks.

Live Ocean has proudly partnered with New Zealand Geographic on citizen science that has contributed to the development of Citizens of the Sea and is now proud to partner with this exciting project. Citizens of the Sea fills an urgent and important scientific need for high quality environmental data in Pacific.

Sally Paterson, Chief Executive of Live Ocean says, “as an ocean organisation born from sailing, we understand the valuable role that Citizens of the Sea can play in engaging the seafaring community, and in enabling sailors and voyagers to make a valuable contribution to the health and understanding of our ocean. Live Ocean is delighted to support this innovative new initiative that brings true scale to the science of ocean biodiversity.”

Results from the Rally sailors will be publicly accessible from Citizens of the Sea in late 2024.

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Related Links:

• Citizens of the Sea
• Cawthron Institute (NZ)
• New Zealand Geographic
• Live Ocean Foundation
• Island Cruising NZ

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