The yellow submarine is off to Antarctica to study rising sea temperatures. She was named after an online competition went viral last year — but could her silly name help to save the planet? Why is it so hard to engage people with news stories about the environment? Read the full article from The Day for all of Boaty’s adventures. 😉

Boaty McBoatface’s first mission

“But the name Boaty McBoatface lives on. It would have been a travesty to cast aside a name that had captured the imagination of so many people around the world. And so, at the NERC National Oceanography Centre, Autosub Long Range Boaty McBoatface was born. Cute though it sounds, this unmanned submarine is part of a fleet of some pretty intrepid explorers. This month they’ll begin their first mission, traversing a deep current that originates in Antarctica and flows through the Southern Ocean. They’ll be collecting data for the Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow (DynOPO) project as they ‘fly’ through submarine waterfalls and rapids, shedding light on how global warming is changing our oceans.” – NERC

What Boaty did next? There are plans for a full-sized inflatable Boaty to travel to events in the UK! 😀

Extra: check out this news article from the BBC – Arctic crossing planned for ‘Boaty’ sub

Art credit: ©2017NERC