- Who
- Continuous Plankton Recorder
- What
- 7,400,340 nautical mile(s)
- Where
- Not Applicable ()
- When
Coordinated by the Marine Biological Association based in Plymouth, Devon, UK, the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey is one of the world’s longest-running marine science projects, started in 1931. By 31 December 2023, the project had trawled 7,400,340 nautical miles (13,705,430 km; 8,516,159 mi) of ocean – equivalent to 342 circumnavigations of the planet – over the course of its 92-year history.
Established in 1931 by British marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy, it was originally intended to help understand how plankton influenced herring numbers, however its scope today goes much further than just fishery data. Using samplers that are towed by ships (both research and merchant vessels) all around the world, the CPR's findings also offer insights into vital environmental areas such as ocean pollution and climate change.
The greatest distance sampled in a single year was 140,208 nautical miles (259,665 km; 161,348 mi), logged in 2014.
