The Statsraad Lehmkuhl, a 98-meter-long, three-masted barque, arrived at Port Lympia in Nice last week and is now on its second One Ocean Expedition. Originally built in 1914 and owned by Norway since 1921, the vessel has been transformed into a floating university, equipped with state-of-the-art ocean science instruments.
The expedition, which launched on April 11 from Bergen, Norway, aims to bridge ocean science, education, and sustainability. It is part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and has partnered with the ESA Advanced Training Course on ocean synergy remote sensing. The expedition brings together young talent from 28 countries to study and share knowledge about the ocean’s crucial role in a sustainable future.
The students aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl are using cutting-edge oceanographic instruments to conduct research and gather data on topics such as internal solitary waves, drifter trajectories, and ocean biodiversity. This data, combined with real-time satellite data, is used to guide the research and inform policies related to ocean health and sustainability.
Among the students on board is Pablo Álvarez, an ESA training astronaut who specializes in remote sensing of the ocean’s surface. He is using satellite imagery to uncover insights into surface roughness, wind behavior, and ocean dynamics, which can aid both marine scientists and astronauts studying Earth from afar.
One of the students, Lena Schaffeld from Germany, is studying the increasing abundance and distribution of microplastic pollution in the ocean. She has found more visible plastics in samples taken from the Mediterranean and is also exploring ways to use satellite data to detect microplastics and track their movement with ocean currents.
The students aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl are grateful for the opportunity to take part in the training course and to share their experiences as part of UNOC3. The course, which was mandated by UN Special Envoy for the Ocean Peter Thomson, aims to bring the ocean to the people and promote evidence-based decisions for a sustainable future.
Craig Donlon, the ESA ocean scientist leading the expedition, emphasizes the importance of a sustainable ocean and the need to protect it for future generations. He believes that the science-based decisions and discussions taking place at the Conference will make societies stronger and help preserve the environment. “A sustainable ocean is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity. There can be no green unless we have a blue thriving ocean,” he concludes.