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 Bounty Trough New Zealand research cruise is a 21-day expedition onboard R/V. Tangaroa, followed by a workshop, undertaken jointly by 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.

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 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.