In order to help marine scientists and researchers get to remote locations, an organization called Yachts for Science has been connecting yacht owners with the scientific community, allowing scientists to tag along on their voyages, BOAT International reported.
On one such recent trip to Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, Paige Maroni, a postdoctoral research fellow from the University of Western Australia, made some exciting discoveries — mainly, that there is a ton of biodiversity on the Svalbard seafloor.
Though Maroni had apparently expected the freezing temperatures of the Arctic seafloor to be inhospitable to marine life, it actually turned out to be quite the opposite.
"I couldn't really believe it, to be honest — even on the first dive when we arrived on the seafloor, we landed on this red coral garden that was teeming with urchins and scallops," Maroni said. "We just saw so many insane colors and so much life immediately: walls of anemones, like a beautiful flower garden; brittle stars (like a starfish but more predatory); red coral habitats; kelp forests; tube worm and sponge gardens."
Of course, though this was a rare situation wherein the owner of a yacht managed to be of help to the scientific community, the overall impact of yachts on our planet is not positive. The vast majority of yachts rely on dirty energy for power and to supply the massive amounts of electricity they consume. Some superyachts, the Guardian reported, emit more planet-overheating air pollution per year by themselves than many small countries.
Social scientist Gregory Salle labeled superyachts a form of "ecocide" in his book, "Superyachts: Luxury, Tranquility and Ecocide." Superyachts, Salle wrote, display, "the capacity of the wealthiest individuals to exonerate themselves from the social and environmental cost of their activities and behaviours."
It is worth noting that the yacht that took Maroni to Svalbard was not a superyacht but a regular yacht, meaning that it merely creates a large amount of planet-overheating air pollution instead of a mind-boggling amount of planet-overheating air pollution.
The positive to take away from the story is that more ocean research can be used to better protect our oceans — largely from the threats caused by the very pollution that yachts create every day.
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