Citizens of the Sea

09/10/2026

We’re so fortunate to have Viki Moore and Island Cruising NZ helping us connect with sailors AND volunteering to collect environmental DNA samples onboard SV BellaVita. Thank you Viki and all of our amazing sailor scientists! 🧬

I am super excited to be doing some ocean eDNA collecting for Citizens of the Sea on our passage from Nouméa to New Zealand!
Thanks so much to Noumea Yacht Services and the University here for their support of this fabulous science project and to all the other 30 ish Pacific Rally boats who are also volunteering!

13/09/2026

We just got back from a conference in Noumea this week and left feeling incredibly grateful for the support of our local partners.

Clementine from Noumea Yacht Services has gone above and beyond to support our initiative, and we’re incredibly grateful for the generosity, encouragement and practical support they’ve shown us. It means a lot to have local businesses who not only understand the importance of citizen science, but are willing to actively support the organisations and people making it happen.

From Citizens of the Sea, thank you to the whole team at Noumea Yacht Services for believing in what we’re doing and for being such fantastic supporters. We’re very lucky to have you in our corner.

If you’re visiting Noumea with a yacht and need a helping hand, we’d highly recommend them. They offer a wide range of yacht support, maintenance and repair services, including haul outs, rigging, sail repair, welding, electronics and mechanical work. They can also help with arrival and departure formalities, customs, and importing or exporting spare parts. If you’re looking for reliable local support while cruising New Caledonia, they’re a fantastic team to have on your side!

29/07/2026

🌊 Exciting news! Citizens of the Sea has been officially endorsed a UN Ocean Decade under the Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON).

This is a huge milestone for our young organisation and a powerful recognition of what our growing community of sailor-scientists is helping to achieve.

Citizens of the Sea is turning ocean voyages into opportunities for discovery — collecting eDNA samples from remote offshore waters that are rarely reached by traditional research vessels. These samples help us better understand marine biodiversity, track changes in ocean life, and build open datasets that can support conservation and management.

Our contribution to OBON and the Ocean Decade includes:

🌊 Citizen-powered ocean biodiversity monitoring
⛵ eDNA sampling across the Pacific and beyond
🧬 A growing archive of ocean genetic samples
📊 Open biodiversity data for science, communities, and decision-makers
🌏 New baselines to help detect climate-driven changes in ocean ecosystems

Thank you to OBON and the UN Ocean Decade community for this endorsement. We are proud to be part of a global effort to better understand and protect life in our ocean. Thanks to Minderoo Foundation for your support!

16/07/2026

Check out this beautiful video from our Citizen Scientist crew Charlotte Keller and Zach aboard Appel d’Air, demonstrating how they use the TorpeDNA device somewhere between Minerva and Tonga. 🌊⛵🧬

Every sample collected helps us reveal the hidden biodiversity of our oceans — from tiny plankton to traces of larger marine life — and build a better picture of ocean health across the Pacific.

Thank you Charlotte and Zach for helping unravel the blue secrets of our seas!

24/06/2026

To our amazing Citizens of the Sea sailors — this one is for you. 🌊⛵🧬

The TorpeDNA device many of you have been towing behind your boats is now officially backed by peer-reviewed science. Our first major research paper validates the tool and shows that this simple, towable sampler can collect meaningful biodiversity data across very different marine environments.

The paper is quite scientific, but you may enjoy seeing the research behind the device you have helped bring to life in the real world.

Most importantly: your samples matter. A much bigger study using our 2024 Pacific Rally data is currently in review, and it proudly acknowledges the incredible contribution of our 2024 Citizen Scientist crews. There is also so much more to come from the 2025 and 2026 datasets.

Thank you for helping turn sailing routes into ocean observation pathways — and for making the invisible life of the sea visible.

Read the open-access paper here: https://peerj.com/articles/21390/

09/06/2026

Exciting preliminary results obtained during The Ocean Race Europe 2025 — and another step in pushing the frontiers of scalable ocean biodiversity monitoring. 🌊🧬⛵

With DNAutic v2 now being prepared for testing during the Route du Rhum 2026, we’re excited to keep building toward an expanded racing eDNA fleet for The Ocean Race World 2027 and Vendée Globe 2028.

Huge thanks to The Ocean Race, Team PAPREC, Sequench, Wilderlab, Illumina, Inc., Minderoo Foundation and Vendée Globe Foundation for helping make this possible.

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8 Jun 2026 08:26 The Ocean Race sailors help detect threats lurking in European waters © Julien Champolion / The Ocean Race Seawater samples collected by sailors during The Ocean Race Europe 2025 could unlock new insights into ocean hazards, from algal blooms to jellyfish swarms. It comes at a crit...

24/05/2026

A beautiful message from the young crew of Savarna, sharing why they are helping collect eDNA as they sail across the Pacific — and why understanding ocean life matters for the future.

This is what citizen science is all about: families, sailors and scientists working together to make the invisible life of the ocean visible. 🧬⛵💙

Many thanks to Charlotte Keller for capturing this moment!

19/05/2026

Meet our Australia to New Caledonia Crews 2026!

12/05/2026

𝐀 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 Citizens of the Sea — 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 Forbes.

This article beautifully captures the vision we’ve been working toward for years: transforming racing yachts into floating laboratories capable of collecting biodiversity data across the world’s oceans using environmental DNA ( ).

From the pioneering Vendée Globe campaign with Fabrice Amedeo, to collaborations with The Ocean Race, the 11th Hour Racing and Paprec Arkéa Teams and citizen sailors across the Pacific, this journey has only been possible through extraordinary partnerships and shared belief in scalable ocean science.

A massive thank you to everyone helping make this happen:
Fabrice Amedeo, The Ocean Race and Stefan Raimund, Vendée Globe Foundation, Spindrift racing, Illumina, Inc., Sequench, Wilderlab, Cawthron Institute, and Minderoo Foundation.

And of course, thank you to science journalist Veronika Meduna for telling this story so beautifully.

📖 Read the Forbes article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/veronikameduna/2026/05/05/racing-yachts-double-as-floating-labs-for-ocean-research/

Racing Yachts Double As Floating Labs For Ocean Research
This is just the beginning 🌍🧬⛵

Yachts equipped with high-tech but user-friendly environmental DNA kits are building a more comprehensive picture of how life in the ocean is changing.

10/05/2026