Cruise inventory
Jointly supported by BODC and the Marine Environmental Data and Information Network
The cruise inventory is a catalogue of UK research vessel activities dating from 1947 to the present day. Currently, it contains entries for 17125 cruises from 778 individual ships. It also contains details of non-UK marine research activities in British territorial waters.
It is a valuable resource for scientists, programme managers and data managers providing information on who has collected what, where and when, in addition to details of measurements taken and samples collected.
Search the cruise inventory.
The information is assembled using Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Cruise Summary Report (CSR, formerly ROSCOP) forms. These are completed by the Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) or appropriate ship's officer for each research cruise or voyage. Forms from UK activities are submitted to BODC. Information on non-UK cruises comes from Notification of Proposed Research Cruise (NPRC) documents submitted to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
Whereas CSRs provide a summary of cruise activities, more detailed cruise information is provided in the Cruise Report which is produced in the months following the end of the cruise.
Documentation available
The following documentation is available in both Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF formats
- Notes for filling in the Cruise Summary Report Form
(111 KB) 
(133 KB) - Cruise Summary Report Form
(432 KB) (1043
KB)
- BODC Guide to Cruise Report Compilation
(64 KB) (133
KB)
- BODC Guide to Cruise Data Management
(60 KB) (40
KB)
Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN)
MEDIN reports to the Marine Science Coordination Committee (MSCC), a Government Committee established to help the UK to face up to future marine science challenges.
One of the aims of MEDIN is to improve the accessibility and availability of marine data through the development, maintenance and dissemination of catalogues and inventories of marine data. The cruise inventory is one of the catalogues maintained by the group in collaboration with BODC.
SeaDataNet - a distributed Marine Data Infrastructure
The SeaDataNet community maintains a database of Cruise Summary Reports from other countries, including forms from the UK submitted through BODC.
