Challenging Habitat
Common limpet

Limpet Gardens

To me, life is about curiosity and learning and growing. I love talking and working with people who have different backgrounds and expertises, because there is always the potential for a surprise, a fact, a story, a new… Read More

Embracing the Challenge

Let’s spell it out: cleaning communal toilets, sharing a dormitory with strangers, travel sickness, washing up for 46 people and standing in the wind and rain for hours on end are not common entries on people’s lists of… Read More

Pesky Critters in Hot Waters

When, in May 2025, the UK Met Office reported that “Northwest European waters are currently experiencing an extreme marine heatwave“, the yachting community in Plymouth had been talking about worsening fouling on their boats for weeks.

The Power of Data

I’ve just spent 10 days on Pelican of London and among other things, deployed my ROV among the Western Isles of Scotland. It’s been a challenge, to say the least, for my blueye Pioneer, as ‘slack water’ appears… Read More

Hydroid colonies on kelp fronds

Funky Creatures

When I discovered that a one-inch-square piece of kelp frond is a microcosm of creatures, (once more) the enormity of the ocean and what we don’t yet know about it, dawned on me.

Corse and topsail set

Setting Sail for Resilience and Ocean Sustainability

Imagine sailing across the ocean under a vast canopy of stars and dolphins weave through bioluminescent waters below. Such breathtaking moments are more than just beautiful – they are transformative.

Snakelock anemone

Citizen Science (not just) for Yachties!

Sometimes it takes a little bit of lateral thinking ….

Pelican on anchor off Douglas

Barrow – Isle of Man – LLandudno – Liverpool

Pelican of London toured three beautiful(ly interesting) parts of the British Isles this week with a crew of seasoned seafarers on board, including Neil, John and Gaz of the Kimber’s Men!

Female Whale Shark, Seychelles. (c) . Oliver Roux 2003. Reproduced under CC license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

Atlantic Mantas, Rays & Sharks

The International Commission for the Conservation for Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) will meet in Cyprus next week. If you want to know why that’s important for sharks, mantas and rays read on…

Samples of bryozoan colonies on kelp under the microscope. (c) C Braungardt

STEM Education: A Gateway to Marine Ecology

Scientist in Residence Mauricio Ferreira spent several weeks on the sail training tall ship Pelican of London and involved teenagers in a plankton research project that compared biodiversity in coastal waters around the Irish Sea. With the right… Read More

Marine Life and Climate Regulation

The young people who have joined us for one of our Ocean Science or STEAMS voyages on the sail training ship Pelican of London know already that the tiny algae that form the base of the entire ocean… Read More

When Data Tell Stories

One of the most rewarding aspect of my job on Pelican of London is to sit down with a group of trainees, who just obtained a bunch of data from a scientific instrument, graph it, kick ideas around… Read More