The Chagos Remote Ocean Voyager Expedition (C-Rove)
We (Bridget Buxton, John Potter (NTNU), Casper Potter (NTNU)) present preliminary results from the 2021-22 C-Rove Expedition and the voyage of the 18m private sailing yacht Jocara to the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean territory). The 6-week project supported by OceanGate Foundation included oceanographic research activities such as water sampling for Environmental DNA analysis, underwater surveying and acoustic recording, in addition to terrestrial DNA sampling and wildlife observation (birds and mammals). We explore some of the challenges and lessons of conducting an extended remote ocean research expedition from a small sailing vessel, and share thoughts on the potential of this new marine research model. As underwater vehicles and their payloads become ever more capable and compact, crewed oceanographic research vessels have trended in the opposite direction: larger in size, fewer in number, and accessible to only a privileged few. Another irony is that so much of the world’s oceanographic research undertaken with aspirations of environmental conservation and sustainability uses the least environmentally friendly platforms imaginable – a point noted by Greenpeace when they recently replaced their large diesel-burning MV Esperanza with a new smaller sailing vessel, the SY Witness. The question is no longer if, but when, oceanographic research will follow the maritime freight and cruise industries in pursuit of carbon neutrality. Our experiences on the C-Rove expedition show that this low-carbon model can be very efficient, economical and effective in the right circumstances and suggests design choices for small vehicles and sensor packages produced with this future in mind.