Superyachts for Science?
What’s a wealthy boater with a lavish vessel and a guilty conscience to do? Donate time on their yacht (or the entire yacht) to marine research.
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Thomas Peterson
Damian Bird is currently the captain of Ammonite, a 77-foot motor yacht owned by a man in South Carolina and operating out of the Bahamas. Bird has recently taken researchers on multiple dives to collect samples in a bid to better understand stony coral tissue loss disease, now a major threat to reefs across the Caribbean — and with each of his postings he has persuaded the various owners to get on board with helping science, if only by installing a device on their vessel’s depth sounder that will help better map the ocean floor.
“Yachting is obviously a luxury and sometimes wasteful industry — there’s a lot of fuel burnt, a lot of food wasted. And a yacht clearly isn’t a necessary item, of course,” Bird says. “It’s rare to meet an owner who isn’t aware of that public image, and that consequently it’s good to be part of something bigger than that. The idea of helping our understanding and protection of the ocean speaks for itself.”
