Expedi­tions

We collaborate with a range of vessel owners, research institutes and philanthropic organisations to fulfill our mission in national waters and in the High Seas. This includes:

• Co-developing Flagship Expeditions with us, either with chartered vessels or by applying for time on national research fleets.
• Aligning your own upcoming expeditions and contributing your new species to the global mission.
• Inviting specialists from our science community or media team to join your expedition, with our support.
• Supplying vessels or technology that facilitates the discovery of ocean life.
• Developing, testing, deploying or innovating subsea technologies to advance the discovery of ocean life.

The Ocean Census is joining the Schmidt Ocean Institute on its ‘High Seas and Seamounts of the Nazca Ridge’ expedition.

This Ocean Census participant expedition will see scientists from the Ocean Census Science Network working alongside the Schmidt Ocean Institute to explore the deep-water regions in the high seas of the Nazca Ridge. Six Ocean Census scientists will join Schmidt Ocean’s R/V Falkor (too).

The Ocean Census is joining the Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) on their Ancient Seamounts of Jarvis Island expedition.

This Ocean Census participant expedition will see an Ocean Census taxonomy expert, working alongside OET, explore the biodiversity of deep-sea habitats near Jarvis Island – an uninhabited coral island in the Central Pacific.

The Ocean Census and Ocean Exploration Trust have partnered since 2023 to accelerate ocean life discovery, catalyse protection, and build human capacity in marine science.

The Ocean Census Arctic Deep Expedition is poised to redefine our understanding of species diversity in this region.

Led by The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census Alliance, UiT (The Arctic University of Norway), and REV Ocean, this groundbreaking expedition brings together a multidisciplinary team of 36 scientists and media experts from 15 leading academic institutions to explore, research, and document this underexplored region.

Ocean Census Philippine Sea is a Participant Expedition to explore the Kyushu-Palau Ridge and Minami-Daito Jima Island areas in the north western Pacific.

As part of the wider JAMSTEC Ocean Shot Expedition, led by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the Ocean Shot Research Grant, and NHK TV, two participant scientists from the Ocean Census Science Network are joining the cruise onboard JAMSTEC research vessel KAIMEI.

The Bounty Trough New Zealand research cruise is a 21-day expedition onboard R/V. Tangaroa, followed by a workshop, undertaken jointly by the Ocean Census and The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), with the participation of Ocean Census Science Network scientists.

Our ambition is to sample down to an incredible 5,000 metres in these under-explored waters.

The Macaronesia Tenerife Submersible and Diver Expedition assembles a world-class coalition of expertise. Macaronesia is a biogeographical region of eastern-central Atlantic, straddling the equator from the Azores to the Canary Islands at the heart. This intense 21-day mission will be augmented by a species discovery workshop featuring leading experts from the Ocean Census Science Network.

The Ocean Census joined forces with the Ocean Exploration Trust (OET) for a 27-day expedition to survey deep-sea biodiversity on the ancient seamounts surrounding Johnston Atoll, home to some of the most pristine marine ecosystems on Earth. Operations aboard the 68-metre E/V Nautilus deployed the dual-body ROV system and focused on exploring seafloor areas to maximum depths of 4,000 metres.

The first expedition the Ocean Census joined was the ‘AKMA3’ cruise, led by the University of Tromsø (The Arctic University of Norway), with collaborators REV Ocean.

Our taxonomists participated to discover life living on the seafloor, including around methane-rich, cold seeps at depths of 100m to 500m.

Species discovery focused on soft corals, glass sponges, sea pens, anemones, echinoids, polychaetes, brachiopods, crustaceans, nematodes and copepods.