SAILING Science

We have partnered with the University of Milan-Bicocca and several international projects to make sure our journey around Europe will have a scientific impact. We will be collecting a variety of scientific data that our partners will use to better understand and protect the marine environment. 

We will collect water samples along the way for chemical and environmental DNA (eDNA) analyses. eDNA is a new technique that recognises the presence of species in an area by identifying their DNA contained in organic traces dispersed in the water. Samples will be filtered and stored onboard until they can be sent to laboratories for analysis. 

We will record visual sightings of cetaceans and sea turtles which will feed in a multinational database.

We plan to collect data on plankton. These will be in the form of filtered and dried samples, and quantitative imaging. The latter will use the PlanktoScope, a high-quality, high-throughput microscope able to produce quantitative pictures of the microbiome.