The untapped potential of Citizen Science to support research in the polar regions while educating captive audiences on board expedition cruise vessels.

The popularity and use of Participatory or Citizen Science (CS) in scientific research has increased over the recent years, and the literature reports that CS can promote positive change; enhance public knowledge, understanding, and awareness of environmental issues; and amplify conservation efforts.

Accessibility to polar regions is limited and expensive.  With resources from other traditional platforms (i.e. research vessels and funding) decreasing, research institutions are looking at alternatives that involve partnering with the private sector tourism as a ‘crowdsourcing’ data collection option, with the added benefit of passenger participation and education. CS monitoring is a cost-effective alternative for greater spatial and/or temporal coverage, including geographical areas that remain under-researched. 

HX’s Science & Education Program focuses on broadening guests’ understanding of the polar regions and ecosystems, as well as the impacts of climate change. Our guests become active participants in data collection through an immersive educational onboard program and on-site interaction with researchers. During 2024 we allocated over 1900 cruise nights to welcome 80+ researchers from collaborating institutions on our vessels and our guests contributed more than 30,000 data submissions to over 20 different CS projects globally.

To better understand this potential and to evaluate the longer-term effect of participation in CS and science related activities on guests, HX carried out a research project in partnership with UTAS during 2022 and 2023. Results from semi-structured interviews with over 70 guests on three HX vessels suggest that guests saw CS, and the Science & Education program more generally, as a core part of their experience, and many returned with a heightened sense of the fragility of the region.

However, and as an example, HX represents approximately 8% of the Antarctic expedition cruising tourism. The full potential for future partnerships to tap into these vast resources as an industry is yet to be realized.