In this new episode of Hoisting the Sail, we are delighted to welcome two guests from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute:  Kerry Ann Crehan-Strøm, the Marine Operations Coordinator for WHOI and Magdalena Andres, associate scientist physical oceanography and an expert on climate variability & impacts.

Magdalena and Kerry are speaking with our host Kat about Science RoCS, i.e. Research on Commercial Ships, an initiative launched to answer the need for increased ocean monitoring.

According to NOAA, 80% of the ocean is still unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored:  Science RoCs aims to fill in some gaps with the help of the  shipping industry.

Since Science RoCS started in 2021, companies such as CMA CGM, Pangaea Logistics Solutions and Wallenius Wilhelmsen have already helped deploy equipments and collected important datas. 

Today there are an estimated 100 ocean-going research vessels worldwide and more than 50,000 commercial ships on the ocean at any given time: "it will be a game changer to have sensors on more commercial vessels", Strom said. "Imagine what we could accomplish in terms of science advancement with even just a one percent of the commercial fleet equipped."