©FAO/Giuseppe Bizzarri Women collecting oysters that have been cultivated in Qualidia Lagoon

8 May 2017, Cairo/ Casablanca/ Accra -The world’s most advanced marine research vessel and the only research vessel to fly the UN flag, the Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, begins its first research voyage today from Casablanca, Morocco.

The new Nansen vessel, the third in a 43-year-old collaboration between FAO and Norway, was officially launched in Oslo’s harbor this past March. Speaking at the ceremony, Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg noted that both science and international collaboration were key elements for implementing the 2030 Development Agenda. She stressed that the Nansen is an excellent example of international collaboration aimed at monitoring ocean health.

Following its launch, the Nansen navigated from Norway to Morocco, where it now begins an ambitious research survey voyage in Casablanca, before continuing along the coast of Morocco and then Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Senegal and Guinea. The survey voyage is divided into four different journey legs, running from May 8 to July 18, when the ship will arrive at its final port in Conakry, Guinea.

The area to be surveyed includes the continental and upper slope of the west coast of Africa. It will sample the pelagic ecosystem from shallow water to 500 meter-depth. This will include acoustic recordings, measuring hydrographic conditions, the abundance and distribution of plankton, and the presence of marine debris and other pollutants such as microplastics.

It is fitting that the new Nansen begins its journey in Morocco’s economic capital. With its 3500 kilometers of coastline along the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and its national fisheries production amounting to 1.3 million tonnes in 2014, Morocco is the largest maritime fisheries producer in Africa and in the 25^th position at the global level.

FAO representative Michael George Hage, stressed that the research carried out by the vessel and is supported by the FAO Nansen project, is essential for the management of ocean resources and ecosystems. The research has a vital role in the success of the “Blue belt” Initiative launched by Morocco at the COP22. This step is in line with the FAO “Blue Growth” Initiative and the United Nations Conference that will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from the 5th till 9th of June 2017, to Support the implementation of the sustainable development goal No. 14.

Mr. Are-Jostein Norheim, Ambassador of Norway to Morocco, said that Dr. Fridtjof Nansen is the most advanced research vessel in the world. It has a state-of-the-art technology with a world-class expertise in the management of marine resources. It is designed to generate the knowledge we need to sustainably manage our ocean resources. He added that this research vessel is a symbol of what we can achieve together when knowledge and technology are combined with international cooperation and political determination.

H.E. Mr. Aziz Akhannouch, Minister for Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests, said that “the new Nansen Scientific Research Vessel is an extraordinary opportunity for African scientists for several reasons. It will allow us to undertake new fields of research, to have at our disposal a common research tool to strengthen our South-South cooperation and to develop our expertise in the oceanographic and fisheries fields”.

Morocco’s Minister for Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development and Water and Forests, the Ambassador of Norway, and diplomats from Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal, as well as other countries involved in the Nansen’s survey voyage, participated in this event.

FAO Representative in Morocco, accompanied by a delegation of senior officials from the organization, and directors of Fisheries and Research Institutes from the five countries involved in the campaign, including Morocco, have also attended the event.

Scientists from research institutes from all five countries that make up this Nansen survey trip will live and work aboard the new vessel during the four legs of this ten-week survey voyage. These scientists will have the opportunity to carry out their research in the seven specialized laboratories of the new Nansen, including a well-equipped new lab to study the effects of climate change. They will be able to benefit from all the updated equipment aboard, including new acoustics instruments, a spectrophotometer to measure Ph, the new manta trawl to collect plastic particles, and the CTD (Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) equipment.

The Nansen’s journey begins only a month before the Ocean Conference in New York that will focus on the 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goal 14 and its objective of protecting life under water. The scientists aboard the Nansen will be collecting the information crucial for countries reporting on progress made in achieving SDG14.

We wish the Nansen and its crew and scientists aboard a safe and productive survey voyage on the world’s most advanced marine research vessel.