Legacies of the Land
We are passionate about the special places we visit with our guests. And Swan Hellenic strive to preserve the world we explore. Not only do we take action to achieve this, we also team-up with other initiatives to help preserve our beautiful planet for future generations.
Antarctic Seabird Surveys
A good example of our work with other initiatives is our partnership with Stony Brook University and the eBird Antarctic Site Inventory initiative, where we work together to monitor seabirds in the Antarctic Ocean.
Guests on voyages that pass through the Antarctic Ocean get the change to contribute to these important surveys.
With support from an experienced ornithologist, and staff member (often an expedition guide), our guests learn how to complete the survey, which are conducted once per sea day in randomly selected 15–60-minute sessions.
The surveys are then emailed to Stony Brook University to record seabird distribution and habitat usage.
Restore our oceans and waters
As members of the EU Mission, restore our Oceans and Waters initiative, Swan Hellenic are due to start sea water sampling in remote areas to support EU universities’ research on microplastic and heavy metals pollution.
We are proud to be part of this EU Mission, which is an unprecedented and coordinated effort to pool the necessary financial, scientific, and operational resources to preserve and restore the health of the world’s oceans and waters.
With a challenging agenda, which includes a 30% reduction of microplastics at sea and net zero maritime emissions, the mission is being jointly deployed by the EU Institutions, Members States and organizations that are part of the Mission Ocean Charter.
Swan Hellenic is the first shipping company to adhere to the Mission, and we have committed to contribute by allowing all our shops to collect data.
From January 2024, our fleet of ships will regularly collect sea water samples, in ocean areas rarely accessed, to improve the accuracy of scientific assessment of ocean health.