Ocean Census Science Network members awarded the Citation of Merit Award by the Explorers Club

Since 1914, The Explorers Club has recognized the world's greatest explorers with exploration's highest honors. The Citation of Merit is awarded annually to individuals or teams in recognition of outstanding feats of exploration. Previous winners include the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition and the Apollo F-1 Engine Search and Recovery Team.

We would like to extend a huge congratulations to two members of the Ocean Census Science Network, Erin Easton and Javier Sellanes, who have been announced as recipients of The Explorers Club Citation of Merit Award.

In 2024, Chief Scientists Javier Sellanes, Ph.D., and Erin Easton, Ph.D., working with the Schmidt Ocean Institute , led an international team that discovered over 150 new species. Their research focused on the southeast Pacific seamounts, underwater mountains that remain largely unexplored. Until now, only a handful of these seamounts had been studied.

Many of the dives took place in the world’s third largest fully protected marine area, the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park, a park roughly the size of Italy.

Using Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) - underwater robots controlled from a research vessel - scientists captured high-resolution imagery and collected biological samples, allowing them to create a more complete picture of seamount biodiversity. The data gathered will contribute to Chile’s efforts to establish a high-seas marine protected area (MPA) along the Nazca and Salas y Gómez ridges.

More recently, Javier and his team from Universidad Católica del Norte hosted the Ocean Census Chile Species Discovery Workshop, where many specimens from these expeditions were analysed. Several newly discovered species from the workshop have now been officially recorded in Ocean Census, further expanding our global database of marine biodiversity.

Meanwhile, Erin is currently on board the Schmidt Ocean Institute 's #AntarcticClimateConnections expedition as an Ocean Census scientist. The team is working to characterise the biodiversity of deep-sea habitats in the Bellingshausen Sea, near Antarctica.

As sea ice recedes during the austral summer, it opens up previously inaccessible areas, providing a unique opportunity to study marine life at the sea-ice interface. Understanding how species are distributed in this fragile ecosystem is crucial for predicting the impacts of climate change on Antarctic biodiversity.

More about the expedition here.

About the recipients

Erin Easton , Ph.D. is the Director of the The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Marine Ecosystems Institute, an Assistant Professor in the School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences at UTRGV, as well as an adjunct researcher for the Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands at the Universidad Católica del Norte (Chile). Her research focuses on the exploration of understudied oceanic regions and their benthic habitats.?

Javier Sellanes, Ph.D. is a marine biology professor at Universidad Católica del Norte , Chile, and an Associate Researcher at the Center for Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands. His research mainly focuses on deep-sea benthic ecology and the taxonomy of molluscs.

The Ocean Census Science Network

Erin and Javier are both members of the Ocean Census Science Network. In order to accelerate the pace of species discovery, the Ocean Census is establishing an open, global network of scientists and institutions. The Science Network can provide support to start or complete taxonomic identification; funding, participation or in-kind support for species discovery through field expeditions, laboratory analysis of existing and new collections of species, and more.

800 marine scientists, taxonomists and marine professionals are currently signed up to the Science Network.

To join the Ocean Census Science Network, submit your details?and a member of the team will get back to you as soon as possible.