ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
We are excited about the opportunity to offer space on our vessels for Oceanographic and Environmental scientists to advance their research goals. We welcome and encourage organizations, institutions, and individuals with projects that could benefit from our unique platforms to approach us with proposals. This is an amazing opportunity for graduate students working on their master’s thesis, PhD candidates working on dissertations, and even undergraduates finishing capstone or senior projects. It is a unique opportunity for senior researchers as well.
Our vessels can provide an alternative to costly modern research vessels, with a more personalized focus on single projects. A research cruise with us will not come with the usual competition for time and space, it will be a one researcher/one project trip. This provides a great experience not only for our guest researchers, but also for our sailing students who can learn even more through assisting in scientific field work.
Our sailing vessels are well suited for pelagic studies in both physical and biological oceanography and can provide access to environments from estuarine to open ocean. They provide a more intimate connection to the sea than larger ships for studying anything from currents and wave dynamics to planktonic and near shore benthic communities.
Sailing Vessels owe their existence to physics, so what better platform to conduct physical oceanography studies? Offshore currents, Gulf Stream eddies, thermal and saline stratification, nutrient upwellings, even seismic and volcanic activity are all possible areas of research.
On the biological side the possibilities are just as numerous. From dolphin studies in the Gulf of Mexico to whale behavioral and migratory studies off the Dominican Republic. Dive expeditions to examine coral bleaching or reef fish communities. Pelagic zooplankton and circadian vertical migration. We can provide the support for research in all these areas and more.
We are very excited about the prospect of research in the Northwest Passage, which has been a rare opportunity in the past. We envision opportunities to study Polar Bears, Narwhals, and other Arctic marine mammals from the quiet and less disruptive platform of a vessel under sail. Climate change has made this passage possible, but will the planet continue this warming trend, or will the Grand Solar Minima reverse this and move us towards a mini ice age? We seem to be in a cycle of magnetic pole reversal, what are the biological and geological implications? The research opportunities are endless and, in many cases, critically important. This will be a true adventure. Conducting research from a sailing vessel in this seldom traveled region of the world is about as close as you can get to the voyage of the Beagle or the Challenger Expedition in this day and age.
Our team includes members with extensive research experience, from the mangroves to abyssal depths and everything in between. Team members have worked with NOAA, NMFS, NSF grants, Colleges and Universities, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and State, county, and municipal organizations. We have endangered species experience with mammals and sea turtles in beach, open ocean, fisheries, and dredge settings. We know what a secchi disk is and we aren’t afraid to use one! In short, we have the know how to assist in planning and executing research projects in the marine environment.
