How the REV Ocean superyacht is built to save the planet

The world's largest super yatch is also about to take the title for the most advanced research and expedition vessel. In case you hadn't heard, our oceans are not doing great. Sea temperatures are on the rise, thanks to climate change. Over fishing is seriously threatening ocean life. And now, there's that little problem of the millions of pieces of plastic we dump in the ocean every single day. But we are about to get a massive and I mean literally massive new tool to help protect our oceans. This is the Rev Ocean, the largest yacht on the planet. It's the brainchild of a Norwegian billionaire Name for the non profit started, dedicated to making the ocean healthy again. While the previous title holder was built for luxury cruising, the new champ was designed to study our oceans. I had a chance to talk with Rev Ocean CEO, Nina Jensen about the project. What was it like for you the first time you stood on board the ship? It was quite daunting. To be honest. I think it's hard to understand the sheer size of such a ship before you actually set. Foot on it. And it is by far the largest research vessel in the world, so I think daunting best describes it. But of course, also quite thrilling in terms of what we can achieve with such an amazing ship. Okay, let's get size out of the way. The REV Ocean is 600 feet long. That's ten feet longer than the previous record holder. This thing is decked out with advanced tech to support oceanic research missions. We will have a world first submarine that can take up to three people down to approximately 2,300 meters Both to do scientific discoveries, exploration and take samples. In the main hangar there's a moon pool with direct access to the water below the vessel. That's where they can launch and recover underwater vehicles. It's also the first yacht to have this advanced trial system, which allows scientists to safely collect fish. Up top, you've got echo sounders and sonars to study fish and map the seabed and currents. Of course, there's two helicopter decks, and there will be various drones on board. And yes, it may be a bit ironic that a tool designed to help protect the environment is a massive superyacht. The REV Ocean hopes the benefits will outweigh the cost and eventually lead to more eco-friendly ships. Given that it will be out at sea for up to 120 days consecutively and going to some of the most remote areas on the planet. At this point in time the technology simply isn't good enough. To be fully electric, but hopefully at some stage, technology will improve and maybe we can even help improve technology to get there. And the revolution isn't just for research. Nina told me she hopes it will become in many ways a sort of floating thinking. We wanna bring together scientists, engineers, key decision makers, innovators, artists, and a wide variety of people to collectively brainstorm and work on dedicated solutions for the major ocean. Challenges. The ship will get some play time as well. The group is making it available for charter to help fund scientific research. Now, it's not clear how much that's gonna cost, just know that my birthday's coming up and I could really use a vacation. Now, we know how celebrities love to attach themselves to projects like this, So I was curious if any reached out to revolution. Quite a few actually, but I'm not a huge fan of name dropping and ideally it wouldn't be me dropping their names but these people actually dropping the ocean name when they're ready to set sail. 20 bucks, says Matt Damon's on that list. The ship is on track to be completed sometime next year. Nina says its first major mission will be a, Pole to pole journey with several stops along the way. I know I'm really excited to see that happen before they set sail. Red ocean is asking for your help. If you can come up with a single piece of equipment that could really make a difference when it comes to the ocean. And you think that we don't have this equipment on board. Please get in touch with us because we want this to be a state-of-the-art [INAUDIBLE]. That's gonna do it for this week. I'm Andy Altman. I'll see you in the future. [BLANK_AUDIO]