Join us on a Voyage of Discovery

Many thanks for your interest in Ocean Challenge Expeditions, and here is the latest update on our venture into the world of true diving expeditions. The quest for the vessel goes on, with Ian trawling the internet and touring the world looking at various research and expedition diving ships with a view to creating the perfect platform for projects that will have very real scientific and conservation objectives.

We have been hugely encouraged by the response of the diving, media and scientific community, adding real momentum to our original concept. The location of our first expedition in early 2009 remains under review – we may look north to the orca’s massing in the Lefoton Islands in Northern Norway, or closer to home along the west coast of Scotland working with basking sharks – other options are also on the table, pending numerous factors such as scientific collaboration, seasonal variations, and availability of film crews.

As the business concept develops, we have also taken on board several investors, interested in becoming more intricately involved in the vessel both as expedition team members and as business associates. In short, Ocean Challenge Expeditions continues to develop rapidly, with perhaps our latest and greatest boost the London International Dive Show.

Our next task is to put flesh on the bones of the expeditions themselves. Throughout this summer we will have two part-time and one full-time staff member co-ordinating the first expeditions. The aim is to create a project that will be exciting to conduct, have real value in scientific and conservation terms, and make a good film.

One of the projects being considered is the mass movement of orcas into the Lefoten Islands in Northern Norway. Lofoten is an archipelago 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle, at the 67th and 68th degree parallels. With a backdrop if steep mountains clad in ice, and series of deep fjords cutting through the islands, it is one of the most dramatic landscapes on earth. The orcas move into the fjords pursuing herring, with estimated numbers of 6-700 working the massive herring shoals in deep water, breaking off mini-shoals which they drive to the surface using flashes of their white bellies, bursts of sonar, and rings of bubbles. When at the surface, the orcas thrash the shoal with their flukes, stunning the herring which are then eaten.

This is one of the great spectacles of the natural world, and is also the centre of a booming tourist industry. Many researchers are concerned about the impact of whale watching vessels on the orcas – indeed there is evidence that they may well be hunting further out to sea due to harassment.

Ocean Challenger would assist various study groups in assessing the impact of tourist activities on the pods of orcas.

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