Around the world there are lots of research vessels and the International Research Ship Operators, or IRSO, provides a forum for collaboration and cooperation.

The Marine National Facility is one of the organisations that belongs to IRSO.

Last year we collaborated to produce this video, about some of the different kinds of research vessels there are around the world and the sort of science that’s being undertaken.

You’ll need to go and grab a cuppa, the video runs for an hour and a half!

If you’d like to fast forward to a particular operator:

IRSO member          Start of sequence
Alfred Wegener Institute 35s
Australian Antarctic Division 4 mins 49 s
British Antarctic Survey 8 mins 23 s
NATO Science and Technology Organisation – Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation 12 mins, 44s
Marine National Facility (MNF) Australia 16 mins 52 s
French Polar Institute 23 mins 4 s
GEOMAR Helmholt Centre for Ocean Research Kiel 26 mins 45s
French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) 31 mins 38 s
Institute of Oceanology China, Chinese Academy of Sciences 36 mins 15s
Institute of Marine Research Norway 43 mins 20s
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) 46 mins 30s
Marine Technology Unit (CSIC) 51 mins 10s
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) 54 mins 44 s
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 59 mins
National Oceanography Centre (NOC) 1 hr 01 min 23 s
Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI) 1 hr 05 mins, 49 s
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego 1 hr 10 mins 50 s
Spanish Institute of oceanography 1 hr 15 mins 24 s
University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLC) 1 hr 26 mins 59 s
US Coastguard 1 hr 32 mins 55 s

International Research Ship Operators Film 2014 – transcript