Is a Scientist Hitching a Ride on Your Next Cruise?

Seabird surveyor Kiirsti Owen stood by the bridge of Adventure Canada’s Ocean Endeavour as it sailed through the Northwest Passage, scanning the water through her binoculars on the lookout for northern fulmars, glaucous gulls, dovekies, and other marine birds. Owen had been working on her a doctorate through a lab at Acadia University, and she was on board the ship as part of Adventure Canada’s Researcher in Residence program.

During the 17-day “Out of the Northwest Passage” journey in September 2024, Owen collected thousands of data points from surveys she conducted when the ship was in motion, as she counted birds within 300 meters of the ship and noted their species, flock size, and behavior, among other data points, recording the data for the Eastern Canada Seabirds at Sea Project (ECSAS), a long-time Canadian Wildlife Service effort.

Conducting research in remote regions can be challenging and expensive. However, many researchers are turning to “ships of opportunity”—a term for ocean vessels that either host scientists or research instruments—to collect vital climate, weather, and ecological data.

“If it wasn’t for these ships of opportunity, it would be really hard to collect information on these birds, especially when they’re at sea,” says Owen, who now works as a wildlife biologist on Vancouver Island. “[They] give us the opportunity to collect this really important information at a very low cost.”

What Are ‘Ships of Opportunity’?

Government agencies, universities, and research institutions all have ships purely devoted to science. But those ships can’t be everywhere and have their own funding and space limits. Partnerships between sailors and scientists have been filling research gaps since at least the 1800s. While ships of opportunity can range from cargo ships to U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers, tourist ships are becoming popular avenues for this data collection. Many researchers give scheduled lectures and presentations onboard, and some provide opportunities for guests to participate in data collection for community science projects.

While there are specific “ships of opportunity” programs run by governments and science organizations, a number of cruise operators are contributing to science by using their vessels as ships of opportunity. They host scientists, install scientific instruments, and even provide opportunities for guests to assist with data collection via community science.

Expedition or exploration cruises are especially well-positioned to participate. These cruises tend to be more adventurous and sail in remote locations from the Arctic to the Galapagos Islands and beyond. This style of travel is rising in popularity; Cruise Lines International Association reported a 22 percent increase in passengers sailing on expedition itineraries from 2023 to 2024, and they expect to hit a 150 percent increase from 2019 in 2029.

Adventure Canada specializes in expedition cruises in remote regions of Canada and Greenland, among other destinations, and aims to host researchers on every core departure, from climatologists to marine mammal experts to atmospheric scientists. Owen was one of three different researchers on the 2024 voyage. Scott McDougall, Adventure Canada’s Director of Sustainability and Regenerative Travel, says the Researcher in Residence program helps the company give back to the environment while also educating guests. “It’s really of deep interest to a large portion of our clients… It also attaches them to the larger issue of sustainability, environmental impact, and what we can all do,” he says.

From Penguin Poop to Climate Data

Nowadays, many tour operators have similar programs that offer space for researchers aboard their ships. Ponant used its icebreaker ship Le Commandant Charcot for more than 130 scientific projects, hosting more than 300 researchers since 2021, including a 2024 Transarctic expedition with 20 scientists on board.

The work spans multiple scientific disciplines. On National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions, researchers have analyzed microplastics and even studied penguin and seal excrement to learn about diseases in remote ecosystems. Australian Antarctic Division scientists participating in Scenic’s program studied Adélie penguins in East Antarctica, and a conservation researcher explored the huts where Australian geologist Douglas Mawson stayed during an Antarctic expedition from 1911 to 1914.

And these programs have resulted in scientific advances. Work conducted on HX Expeditions has led to 17 scientific reports and papers, including a study showing that declining ice cover could negatively impact whale reproduction.

Some of these operators also participate in the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Ships of Opportunity Program through the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). The program uses automated instruments on cruise ships—as well as other vessels—to collect ocean and atmospheric measurements and gather vital data for things like the global carbon budget. 

Since 2005, NOAA’s Ships of Opportunity program has produced 10.3 million data points, averaging 500,000-800,000 data points per year, which become part of a vital global dataset shared with partners. Participating vessels range from Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, which carries thousands of passengers, to smaller ships like Ponant's 245-passenger polar vessel Le Commandant Charcot, and even smaller ships that sail the Galapagos Islands like the 48-passenger National Geographic Islander II.

Collecting Troves of Arctic Research Data

Across around 5,000 miles, ECSAS surveyors collected a trove of data about seabirds on Adventure Canada vessels between 2015 and 2023. They recorded species, flock size, and behavior, among other data points, and the information they gathered will be used to learn about offshore ecology and the impacts of human activities, as well as to conduct environmental impact reviews and identify areas in need of protection. During Owen’s journey, she was thrilled to spot an ivory gull—a High Arctic species—and she also noted a number of dead birds. Scientists were able to test several birds and seals in Resolute and Arctic Bay during the fall of 2024 and confirmed they had the H5N5 variant of avian flu.

Researchers also use other tools for data collection, such as aerial surveys and bird-borne tracking devices, but the ship-based data is vital. A 2025 study they published in the journal Marine Ornithology suggests that cruise ships fill a vital gap in ECSAS seabird data collection. Researchers found research vessels covered 3.5 times the area that cruise ships did, but they found very little overlap in the coverage areas.

Thus, cruise ships were collecting data that the research vessels don’t get to. Cruise ships tended to stick to shallower waters closer to land, often in areas with higher bird densities, adding value to the program, which had previously only relied on research vessels.

Sampling Remote Plankton Communities

Ships of opportunity fill other gaps in remote parts of the globe, such as Antarctica. Conducting research in such areas is difficult and very expensive. Traditionally, Antarctic researchers would apply for berths aboard research ships, though the demand for these spots was very high, making it a challenge for polar scientists to collect all the data they wanted or perform repeat sampling over seasons or years.

When Allison Cusick, biological oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, and her team first began collecting data onboard Antarctic expedition cruise ships in 2016, it was a relatively novel concept. They realized that tourism ships operate in Antarctica every year from November through March, visiting the same sites repeatedly, and they could provide a great avenue for data collection.

Cusick is co-founder of the FjordPhyto project, aimed at studying how melting Antarctic glaciers influence phytoplankton communities, the microbes that form the base of the food web for Antarctic animals. Her team began talking to a few polar guides in 2015 and conducted a sampling trial in early 2016, followed by a full season of data collection in 2017. Using cruise ships for repeat sampling provided a wealth of data for the project.

“We could really get a good look at the changes that happened within the season and then compare season to season, so interannual variability, and I think what was striking to me is just how dynamic it is,” Cusick says.

Today, a nonprofit co-founded by Cusick called Plankton Base runs the project and much of the data is collected by trained ship-based guides and guests. Since it began, FjordPhyto has involved more than 12,000 participants over 10 seasons, and researchers have used the samples they collect to learn more about glacial meltwater, algal blooms, and even find a bloom with a new lineage of dinoflagellates. Their findings have been published in a variety of peer-reviewed publications and contributed to many student research projects.

Altogether, 16 different tour operators have participated in the project, utilizing 26 different ships. Cusick emphasizes how the project is scalable and data can be collected from a wooden tall ship without electricity or a 500-passenger ship with a full science center, but the most important part is the guests’ interest in the project.

“In the beginning years, we kind of had to show that it was an activity that was desired by the travelers,” Cusick says. “If they’re coming on board and they don’t care and they don’t want to do it, it never would have worked.” She says the ships’ clientele care about the projects and want the programming, so operators are embracing the opportunity and marketing science projects as an onboard activity.

Guests Embrace Science on Ships

While involving guests with science onboard expedition cruise ships was once novel, it’s now a popular concept and a number of different operators are providing a platform for research—and sharing the opportunity to learn and be involved with guests.

“There’s a lot of interest from the passengers,” says Carina Gjerdrum, a Canadian Wildlife Service seabird biologist who oversees ECSAS and led the work on the importance of cruise ships in seabird data. “These aren’t just people looking to cruise around. They tend to be people that are really interested in learning about the environment in which they’re traveling.”

Leticia Barbero, a chemical oceanographer with the University of Miami who is part of the carbon group at NOAA’s AOML, was one of the 20 scientists onboard the Ponant's Transarctic expedition last September. She points to the vital importance of these partnerships for data collection.

"We couldn't do this without the support of the industry," Barbero says. "We rely on them and we are very appreciative that they allow us to install our instruments in their vessels and we hope this collaboration continues. It's really essential, and I think it helps them and us."

As for Owen, she spent much of her 2024 cruise alternating between scanning for seabirds and chatting with curious passengers. The data she meticulously recorded that day became part of a set that continues to inform conservation efforts in the Northwest Passage and well into the future.