Author: Lindsey Biondo, Strategic Marketing & Partnerships Manager, Sea-Bird Scientific
Most modern ocean research vessels are massive, engine-powered floating institutions, outfitted with the latest and greatest in ocean sensing technology. Haakon Vatle had a different vision: convert a century-old sailing ship into an ambassador for ocean science and exploration. Vatle is the CEO of the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation, and the visionary behind the inception of the One Ocean Expedition, where the Statsraad Lehmkuhl sails around the world conducting scientific research and raising awareness for ocean conservation and advocacy. While most research vessels traverse the globe with loud engines that emit greenhouse gases, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl is mainly powered by wind, reducing emissions and noise pollution that can disrupt marine life.
The Statsraad Lehmkuhl’s inaugural circumnavigation as part of the One Ocean Expedition took place from August of 2021 to April of 2023, with the objective of bringing together students, researchers, leaders and more, to raise awareness and action for a more sustainable ocean. Representatives from over 62 nations took part throughout the initial 2-year voyage.
Collaboration and education took place aboard the ship while at sea, and at every port visited. Receptions, debates, lectures, and workshops could be found aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl while docked in various cities as it traversed the globe.
Not only were these engagement activities part of the main itinerary, but as the ship sails on the open sea and in coastal waters, state-of-the-art instrumentation gathers real-time data that is sent to labs onshore for analysis and later distributed for use in ocean models and decision-making frameworks.
The One Ocean Expedition is part of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, also known as the UN Ocean Decade. Inclusion in this global framework showcases recognition of the impact of this international expedition on global development goals, and the relevance of the research conducted relative to broader challenges and gaps in understanding. In fact, the alignment is so strong, that the Statsraad Lehmkuhl became an official ambassador for the UN Ocean Decade. The One Ocean Expedition’s goals serve to support all seven of the UN Ocean Decade Outcomes as part of the journey towards the UN Ocean Decade’s vision for the science we need for the ocean we want: a clean ocean, a healthy and resilient ocean, a productive ocean, a predicted ocean, a safe ocean, an accessible ocean, and an inspiring and engaging ocean.
The team completed the second One Ocean Expedition in the Spring of 2026. Across a span of 18 months from 2025 – 2026, the ship would go on to sail through Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, France, Ireland, eventually completing its expedition and docking in Bergen, Norway, on April 17, 2026.
Natacha Fabregas is no stranger to life at sea. From her first experience aboard a research cruise, she realized that she already knew she loved science, but she also loved being at sea. A realization familiar to many scientists, it’s not just about the data, but about the experience of being out on the open water. She had the opportunity to take part in the inaugural One Ocean Expedition, joining the ship two times – once for a workshop organized by the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, and a second time for a three-week summer school (organized by the CHESS Research School) as a Ph.D. student helping teach and supervise bachelor’s and master's students while they studied key topics of the IPCC climate report.
Hired as the Science Coordinator aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl, she maintains the scientific equipment and ensures that the research teams are taking the relevant samples with the instrumentation they have on board as part of partnerships forged with different researchers and institutions. In addition, she is responsible for conducting outreach and supporting the overall mission to expand access to field-based science for the expedition and share the knowledge gained with visitors and the public. She calls out one of the main goals of this expedition is,
“...to create attention and share knowledge about the crucial role of the ocean for a sustainable future from a global perspective."
This role, she says, combined many things she loved: instrumentation, outreach, sampling, small research projects, science, and of course, sailing. Now, she does all these things, while also supporting an internationally recognized initiative that’s advancing our understanding of the ocean’s role in our ever-changing planet.
She emphasizes that, through the One Ocean Expedition, they hope to remove the barrier for people not directly involved in ocean science from an academic or professional perspective to gain awareness and understanding as to how our oceans are being impacted by both anthropogenic and natural processes. Through this expedition, they hope to answer a few critical questions, one of them being,
“How do biodiversity and indicators of human impact vary across the world’s oceans?”
Fabregas then discusses the challenge of communicating the need for change in a way that resonates with the public. She says she focuses on sharing information in a positive way, demonstrating there are opportunities for change and to make things better through collaboration, coordination, and a desire to do better for our planet. They hope to, "...reduce the gap between the public and the science - because in many cases, it's a bit hard for the public to understand and to be involved." This expedition showcases the impact that these types of internationally coordinated ventures can have on spreading awareness and moving the needle for the advancement of ocean science.
The One Ocean Expedition is built on the desire to merge community, education, and exploration with real and usable data collection. The suite of sensors onboard the vessel serves to provide data to feed many different avenues of research – from eDNA, microplastics, optical measurements, visual observations, weather monitoring, oceanographic parameters, acoustics, ocean current monitoring, and more.
For some research areas, the ship will take measurements as it is in motion. For others, it makes stops along the way. For many of the oceanographic measurements with the Sea-Bird Scientific SBE 32 Carousel Water Sampler, the ship makes a stop to enable them to gather a quality profile through the water column. For this expedition, they were stopping roughly two times per week to gather these types of data, depending on conditions and what type of expertise was aboard the vessel.
From an oceanographic perspective, the ship is equipped with a state-of-the-art set-up from Sea-Bird Scientific: a SBE 32 carousel plus a SBE19plus V2 SeaCAT equipped with a SBE 43 dissolved oxygen sensor, SBE 18 pH sensor, ECO optical sensor, C-Star, and a SatPAR sensor. With this set-up, they took profiles across the water column at depths of up to 1,200 meters with a uniquely designed compact carousel unit to accommodate limited space on the ship due to the unique use case of its sails.
The team’s ability to collect data is not always so smooth. They face harsh conditions and limitations, including the ship not having dynamic positioning or a conventional crane system, and the necessity to adjust the sails before each CTD cast, not to mention dealing with ongoing drift, incoming waves, and cable angles. Despite these challenges, Sea-Bird Scientific’s instrumentation enabled the team to consistently collect conductivity (salinity), temperature, depth (pressure), dissolved oxygen, pH, chlorophyll, turbidity, backscattering, and light distribution data, all critical pieces in obtaining a real-time picture of the state of our ocean at any given location. From Canada to Costa Rica, Sea-Bird Scientific instrumentation provided reliable and defensible data, supporting the One Ocean Expedition at every stop along the way.
The inclusion of Sea-Bird Scientific sensors was critical to ensure the accuracy and reliability required for data that is informing international ocean models and decision making. The team has instrumentation from various organizations, spanning ADCPs, hydrophones, and many more. This balance of oceanographic, biological, and chemical instrumentation enables the researchers aboard the ship to take a variety of measurements to paint a holistic picture of the ocean at any waypoint.
The Statsraad Lehmkuhl is part of a voyage for science and partnership. The One Ocean Expedition drives impact and change because of its ability to involve stakeholders from all areas – academia, government, non-profit, and the public. It serves as a lens into how this type of science happens, and what the results of that science mean for ocean literacy. It is connecting both the people that conduct the science and the data obtained with the right audiences.
Participants - whether an individual or part of an organization - can take part in different legs of the voyage. This resulted in many academic institutions and other scientific entities booking an entire voyage, where undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students from all over the world could use the instrumentation on board to take measurements and samples for their own research – directly supporting their theses and future projects.
A large factor for scientific change is weaving the ecosystem together with the different stakeholders that are engaged with our oceans. This expedition enables the direct connection of these groups – where they can be present while science is actually happening, fostering life-long connections that serve to broaden networks and improve research outcomes. Students, policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, educators, and ocean advocates from different countries and disciplines share the same deck, creating opportunities for conversations that might not happen in a traditional research setting.
All the data from this voyage is automatically fed into the open-access Norwegian Marine Data Centre, where any person or entity can access the entire suite of data. This sharing of data underscores the Expedition’s commitment to the advancement of ocean science. These data feed weather forecasting, ocean acidification models, current monitoring, and more. Fabregas notes that one of the main hopes of this expedition is to, “
“...encourage all of the researchers to share the information in a way which is understandable because people come from very different backgrounds.”
Dissemination of information across countries and organizations, in a way that can be easily understood by people outside of ocean science, is a stepping stone towards a truly holistic understanding of our ocean and the actions we can take to best support it.
The One Ocean Expedition is already setting its sights on its next voyage in 2028, where the team will visit 30 ports across all seven continents over the course of two years while they continue their expedition to merge ocean science, education, and community engagement. Fabregas hopes that in the future we will see more research vessels, powered by wind, traversing the globe to help us protect our blue planet. Sea-Bird Scientific is proud to support this international expedition as it advances open ocean data, field-based education, and a deeper understanding of our one ocean.
Thank you to the One Ocean Expedition team, the Statsraad Lehmkuhl Foundation, and the crew and science coordinators aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl for their ongoing work to advance ocean research, education, and public engagement. We are grateful to Natacha Fabregas for sharing her perspective on the expedition and to the researchers, students, and partner institutions whose collaboration helped bring this effort to life. Additional thanks to André Marton Pedersen and Richard Sible for the photography featured throughout this case study.