After enduring choppy waves and high winds, the UK’s most famous underwater robot, Boaty McBoatface, has been successfully winched ashore in Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris, Scotland. The yellow submarine completed a remarkable 55-day expedition across the Atlantic, traveling more than 2,000 kilometers from Iceland. Now, it faces a post-voyage clean-up, with engineers noting that the robot is covered in sea slime and marine growth.
Boaty McBoatface, named by the public in 2016 as part of a polar ship naming competition, was repurposed to explore the ocean’s “twilight zone”—a mysterious region deep beneath the surface. This recent journey was the longest undertaken by its class of submarine and was crucial for advancing our understanding of climate change impacts on the deep ocean.
The primary mission of this voyage was to investigate “marine snow,” a term scientists use to describe tiny particles of organic matter, including fecal pellets, that drift down to the ocean floor. These particles play a vital role in the biological carbon pump—a natural process that helps sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and mitigate climate change. By studying marine snow, researchers aim to gain insights into how climate change might be affecting this essential carbon cycle.
Boaty McBoatface, equipped with over 20 sensors, functioned as a mobile laboratory during the mission. It measured various biological and chemical parameters, including nutrients, oxygen levels, and temperature. This data is crucial for the BioCarbon project, a major research initiative led by the National Oceanography Centre, the University of Southampton, and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
Dr. Stephanie Henson and Dr. Mark Moore, key scientists involved in the BioCarbon project, highlighted the significance of this research. In June, while onboard a research vessel in Iceland, they described the pristine conditions that allowed for optimal deployment of instruments and collection of sediment samples. These samples, rich in microscopic marine life, will help scientists better understand the ocean’s role in carbon storage and how this might be changing due to global warming.
The successful completion of this expedition marks a significant achievement for the National Oceanography Centre’s fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles. Despite the challenging conditions, Boaty McBoatface has proven its reliability and capability, providing valuable data that could lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of oceanic carbon cycles.
As scientists analyze the data collected during the mission, the insights gained from Boaty’s journey will contribute to a deeper understanding of climate processes and potentially inform strategies to address climate change.
I am Aparna Sahu
Investment Specialist and Financial Writer
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