No green without blue: Young ocean explorers set sail for a sustainable future

This article is published in association with United Nations.

With science at the forefront of the opening day of the Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), UN News boarded a 111-year-old Norwegian tall ship on the French Riviera to meet 50 science students, along with a host of lecturers and citizen scientists fresh from a 46-day expedition. Fueled by satellite data from the European Space Agency (ESA), their invaluable observations echo the urgent call to understand and protect the world’s oceans.

In the old town of Nice, the 98-meter-long, three-masted barque arrived last week at Port Lympia, where UNOC3 is now under way. Built in 1914 and owned by Norway since 1921, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl – named for former Norwegian minister Kristofer Lehmkuhl – was refitted last year with state-of-the-art ocean science instruments, transforming it into a floating university.

Now, more than a century after its construction, the vessel has become a cutting-edge research platform, bringing together scientists, students, and explorers to unravel the ocean’s secrets.

This transformation is central to the ship’s second One Ocean Expedition, launched on April 11 from Bergen, Norway, with a mission to bridge ocean science, education, and sustainability. The expedition aims to raise awareness and share knowledge about the ocean’s crucial role in a sustainable future for all. It is expected to return to Bergen a year from now.

As part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, a global initiative aimed at reversing the decline in ocean health, this expedition partnered with the ESA Advanced Training Course on ocean synergy remote sensing. Together, they assembled young talent from 28 countries to cross-reference ocean observations from space and sea, bridging the gap between satellite data and in-situ research.

ESA/Ocean Media Lab

Demonstration of ESA satellite remote sensing.

Space-ocean synergy

“Marrying … the science, oceanographic and sailing traditions is the best way to get inside the ocean from the surface,” said Craig Donlon, the ESA ocean scientist who led the expedition. He also told UN News that real-time satellite data is used to guide on-board research and point students towards areas that need more and better measurement.

Each day, the ESA transmits space-collected data to the ship, delivering it approximately three and a half hours after processing. “Then we come to the captain, and we upset him by saying, we’ve just discovered this new thing, can please we move here?” laughs Mr. Donlon.

Student’s hard work bearing fruit

Mr. Donlon said that cutting-edge oceanographic instruments, including an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) to measure water movement, hydrophone arrays to capture underwater soundscapes, and Conductivity, Temperature, Depth (CTD) sensors to analyze seawater properties, work together to decode the ocean’s hidden dynamics.

Leveraging these, the students can cross-pollinate between their findings in physics, biology, and air-sea interaction, working individually or in groups on projects including internal solitary waves, drifter trajectories and ocean biodiversity studies.

“It’s quite tough, because they have to work eight hours a day on deck, and the remaining time they have to eat and sleep, but they also find ways to work together,” Mr. Dolon explained. “They made a huge number of measurements […] it’s an amazing journey that they’ve made. We have nearly 15 terabytes of in-situ observations taken aboard this scientific vessel.”

He also spoke highly of the value of these works as evidence-based tools that can ensure the data sets sensibly underpin policies and promote ratification.

“It’s our one Ocean, and we must learn to live in harmony with its majesty because it’s beautiful but fragile. It’s not a global dumping ground. Our future ocean ambassadors, the students aboard this ship, will lead this endeavor,” he insisted.

UN News/Heyi Zou

Pablo Álvarez, an ESA training astronaut, talks to UN News.

An astronaut’s blue ambition

Among these young explorers is Pablo Álvarez, an ESA training astronaut set to join the International Space Station before 2030. Before launching into orbit, he’s honing his skills and deepening his knowledge aboard this tall ship – trading the vastness of space for the mysteries of the sea.

He specializes in remote sensing of the ocean’s surface. By analyzing satellite imagery, such as patterns formed by sunlight reflecting off waves, known as ‘sun glitter’, he uncovers insights into surface roughness, wind behavior, and ocean dynamics. These key data points aid both marine scientists and astronauts studying Earth from afar, offering valuable clues that may help predict the ocean’s movement.

“In both fields [Ocean Science and Earth System Science] you’re moving the human knowledge a bit farther with everything you do,” added Mr. Álvarez, “I think it’s in our DNA to explore and to learn more about our environment, and the universe where we are living.” 

UN News/Heyi Zou

Lena Schaffeld (second from the right) is among students presenting their studies on board.

Women improve scientific study

Among the students aboard, Lena Schaffeld, from Germany, found the expedition particularly inspiring. She felt empowered knowing that female students outnumbered their male peers – a rare and meaningful shift in a field often dominated by men.

“I think we need a lot of women in science, especially ocean science. So, it’s quite nice to be one of them,” Ms. Schaffeld said proudly.

Focused on the increasing abundance and distribution of microplastic pollution in the ocean, Ms. Schaffeld went on to tell UN News that the journey has benefitted her studies as well. “We’ve been passing different seas. We’ve come from the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Sea, towards the open Atlantic Ocean, and now into the Mediterranean,” she said.

UN News/Heyi Zou

The marine debris monitoring project is conducted by Lena Schaffeld with other two students.

Collecting data along the way, she said she has found more visible plastics in samples taken from the Mediterranean.

“Microplastics are pieces of plastic that are smaller than 5 millimeters, and most of them are invisible,” explained Ms. Schaffeld, who stressed that her work is just beginning and it’s too soon to draw any conclusions.

“Only after [the filtration process] and when I look under the microscope, which is going to happen at the end of this voyage, will we know how much plastic there actually is.”

Looking forward to further studying these samples, she said she will also try to explore ways to use satellite data to detect microplastics in the water, and to lay out a bigger picture about how plastic moves with the currents.

“The water is always moving and plastic on the surface moves along with these currents. So, we’re also going to be applying some numerical modeling to predict or even backtrack [to] where that plastic came from. It’s going to interesting,” she noted with hope.

UN News/Heyi Zou

‘A sustainable ocean is a necessity’

Many students on board the Statsraad Lehmkuhl expressed their gratitude to take part in the training course and to be able to share their stories and experiences as part of UNOC3.

“Bringing the ocean to the people is a job that we’ve tasked our students with,” stressed Mr. Donlon. “They’ve engaged with Peter Thomson, the United Nations Special Envoy (for the ocean). He gave us a mandate to run this course, and we’ve followed that mandate.”

In Mr. Donlon’s eyes, “the UNOC3 is the place where we come together. We discuss the most relevant topics, and we bring a ministerial element to that, to ratify evidence-based decisions”.

He said that he is convinced that the science-based decisions and discussions taking place at the Conference “will make lives and societies stronger”, while at the same time help to protect the environment for future generations. “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 reiterated.