Since June 2024 we have a cooperation with the Norwegian University of Life Science (NMBU) in Ås. Together with Prof. Turid Mørkøre we established an internship with the title “Ocean Health”. Six students are staying with us on board for 4 weeks at a time, documenting biodiversity in protected and unprotected coral reefs as well as sources and distributionpatterns of ocean plastic. The aim of this programm is to provide them with first hand experience in beautiful but threatened eco systems. Thus we foster a feeling of responsibility and motivate them to take sustainable choices in their future professional life.

In June 2024 we sailed in the Raja Ampat region in Eastern Indonesia. The students were impressed by the contrast in biodiversity between protected and unprotected reef areas.

To the question, how this experience has value for their life and work back home in Norway, they answered that these four weeks clearly showed that the protection of an eco system is highly effective in restoring biodiversity.

Two of the students kindly allowed us to publish their internship reports on this website:

Elisabet Ødegaard Hansteen (Biology):  

Elisabeth focused on coral reefs, their biodiversity, threats through human interfierance and conservation work done by several NGO’s in the area. 

In June and July we will be sailing in the Philippines, where the focus will be on the human use of marine ressources and atmospheric micro plastics.

Mariann Mosvold (Reniewable Energy):

Mariann focused on the sustainability of the expedition itself, especially focusing on FN’s SDG 6,7,12,15 og 17.  

Mariann also wrote a blog post about her personal experience on board!