Challenger 150 ApproachUpcoming Cruises
What We Do
The Challenger 150 programme is a global scientific cooperative developed to respond to the needs of the UN Ocean Decade. It is a vehicle for coordination of deep-sea research globally towards a set of common objectives. Those objectives are set out by the UN Ocean Decade but here are set in the deep-sea research context (see Howell et al. (2020) for detail)
Expand deep-sea biological observations
Expand deep-sea biological observations and sampling in all ocean basins, specifically focusing on underexplored regions.
Build fundamental ecological understanding
Build fundamental ecological understanding of deep-sea ecosystems including ecosystem services delivered by the deep seas, and flows of benefits to society.
Increase use of deep-ocean knowledge
Increase use of deep-ocean knowledge through development of effective ‘knowledge to end-user’ pathways, including use of decision-support tools in modelling deep sea management scenarios.
The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO has formally endorsed Challenger 150 as a UN Ocean Decade activity.