Named Falkor, the 82.9-meter ship was originally built in 1981 as a fishery protection vessel. Eric and Wendy Schmidt acquired it in 2009, when they founded the institute, and subsequently commissioned a two-year refit to convert it into a research vessel, according to Schmidt Ocean Institute . Originally built for fishery protection, scientists later used the ship for ocean research.
The vessel was to be renamed Gaia Blu and would conduct further ocean research under the Italian agency called CNR. The main feature of the vessel was that it could provide its services to researchers for free. This approach was responsible for shaping the function of the Falkor for the next decade to come. This included hosting international scientists on research expeditions and ensuring that the ocean science conducted aboard the ship was accessible to groups capable of utilizing the resources available. The ship was also involved in subsea research. The transfer to CNR was the last step of the collaboration between Schmidt Ocean Institute and Falkor, but not the end of the research career of the ship.
At the time Schmidt Ocean Institute announced its gift to Italy’s National Research Council in March 2022, Falkor had completed 81 expeditions, hosted 1,056 foreign scientists, and mapped 1.3 million square kilometers of seafloor. However, the vessel’s rebirth started back in 2009 when the Schmidts purchased it and founded Schmidt Ocean Institute. By March 2022, the ship had traveled a distance equivalent to 12 circumnavigations of Earth, the institute said. The Schmidt Ocean Institute’s annual impact report 2022 identifies 81 expeditions and 1,845 days of science carried out by the Falkor, traveling 521,000 kilometers at sea. The number of square kilometers of seafloor mapped is listed at 1.34 million. The remotely operated vehicle SuBastian conducted 481 subsea dives throughout the expedition, with the dives totaling 2,415 hours of diving into the depths of the sea. Researchers collected 6,194 samples. The annual report also recorded 26 new species discoveries and 633 terabytes of scientific data collected Falkor’s role was not limited to gathering samples and mapping the seafloor. Its annual report states that 1,056 scientists, 340 students, and 43 artists were involved in its expeditions. The institute produced 202 scientific papers and more than 5,135 articles on studies. Public engagement activities consisted of 684 talks and podcasts, and Ship-to-Shore initiatives. The CNR was Italy’s largest research organization, with 88 institutes nationwide and a 450-strong marine science community, as stated in the announcement.
In two years of refurbishment, the former fisheries protection ship became “the first-ever year-round philanthropic research vessel,” according to the institute’s description. The institute said that the Italian National Research Council would employ the ship in ocean science investigations in the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere.
