Ocean Race Science Programme scoops award

Efforts to increase understanding of ocean health recognised by prestigious Ocean Tribute Awards.

Leg Zero, Around the Island Race. 02 August, 2017Marc Bow/Volvo Ocean Race

The seven boats collected new scientific data during the nine-month fully-crewed, round the world yacht race. This helped increase scientific understanding of the impacts plastic pollution and other human activity are having on ocean health. The award was presented during a ceremony held at the boot Düsseldorf International Boat Show. Panel judge Frank Schweikert, Chairman of the German Marine Foundation, said: “The programme was groundbreaking and set new standards in global awareness of the dramatic levels of pollution in the oceans. “This was a perfect symbiosis between water sports and science."

Anne-Cécile Turner, Sustainability Programme Leader, accepted the award at the ceremony, attended by Prince Albert II of Monaco who was representing his foundation. She said: “The Science Programme was an innovative and collaborative effort involving sailors, scientists, partners and a whole host of others concerned about the ocean and keen to advance our understanding of the problems it faces. “By working together we were able achieve the objectives of educating, innovating and leaving a lasting legacy and are proud that this has been recognised by the Ocean Tribute judges.”

This is the third win for the programme after it already proved successful in the ‘Sports CSR Campaign of the Year’ category at the International Sports Awards and in the ‘Best Corporate Campaign or Initiative in Sport for Good’ category at the Beyond Sport Awards. An expert scientific consortium, funded by Volvo Cars, used cutting edge technology to build state of the art equipment to capture the most relevant ocean data. This included information on the global spread of microplastics, how a changing climate is affecting ocean health and, through the deployment of drifter buoys, ways oceanographic data can improve our understanding of the link between the ocean and weather patterns.

The scientific analysis was spearheaded by GEOMAR Institute for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, funded by the Cluster of Excellence Future Ocean. The data has been uploaded to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) database where scientists are able to access it open source.