The Marine Institute operates two purpose built research vessels, the RV Celtic Explorer, and the RV Celtic Voyager as well as the deepwater ROV Holland I. The 65m long RV Celtic Explorer is a highly sophisticated low-noise multipurpose research vessel designed for undertaking a wide array of offshore and deep-sea survey operations. The RV Celtic Voyager is a 31.4m multipurpose vessel suited to coastal research and offshore survey operations.
Both vessels are fully equipped with state-of-the-art scientific instrumentation, laboratories and IT equipment and are used for a variety of applications including fisheries research, environmental monitoring, seabed mapping, oceanography, seismic surveys, student training and meteorological investigations. The current vessel schedules can be accessed online.
Applying for Shiptime
The call for ship-time is announced in August/September each year for the following year's ship-time schedule. Please visit Apply for Ship-time or contact Research Vessel Operations for more information.
Track the Vessels
Find out where the Celtic Explorer and Celtic Voyager are with our Online Vessel Tracking map.
Data from the Research Vessels
Data acquired from the ships is quality controlled and archived by the Oceanographic Services section. Information about quality and availability of this data is detailed in the Publications and Data section, through our Marine Data Online and Web Mapping projects.
All data requests must be submitted via the Marine Institute Data Request Form. The Marine Institute Data Policy should be referenced in advance of this.
Contact Research Vessels Operations
For further information on the vessels or their research and monitoring programmes, contact:
Research Vessel Operations
Marine Institute - Ocean Science Services
Rinville,
Oranmore, Galway.
Tel: +353 91 387 200
Fax: +353 91 387 201
Email: rv@marine.ie