President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has paid a surprise visit to the international Nekton Mission to offer support to ocean scientists in their quest to find answers that can help unlock the secrets of the deep.
Four Maldivian aquanauts, who met President Solih on board, have journeyed to 500 metres below the surface in the past two days. The president saw data they collected, which Nekton marine biologists and mapping experts are now analysing. He was accompanied by government ministers who explained how critical Nekton’s work is for the nation’s understanding of what lives in the deep ocean.
Scientists from the Maldives, India, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom (UK) have begun an international scientific collaboration called The Maldives Knowledge Exchange Expedition to explore the depths of the Indian Ocean and gather vital data which will better inform governments and the scientific community worldwide as they tackle climate change.
The expedition is part of a wider five-week mission under the joint auspices of the Government of the Maldives and the UK marine research institute Nekton. The 10-strong knowledge exchange team will join scientists on the mission in what marks the start of a new era of scientific collaboration between scientists from the Indian Ocean and their UK colleagues. The expedition will undertake the first systematic discovery and documentation of ocean life in the Maldives from the surface to 1,000m. The expedition will deploy human-occupied submersibles, robots, autonomous systems, and over a dozen advanced subsea research technologies.