Boaty MacBoatface

What is Boaty MacBoatface?

The UK is presently building a £200 million state-of-the-science ocean research ship, with planned completion sometime in 2019. The UK public was invited to vote on a name for the new ship. The overwhelming winner was the tongue-in-cheek name Boaty MacBoatface. This name left those higher-ups in the UK a bit unsure of whether to let democracy rule, or to use a more respectable name.  After a period of navel pondering, the new vessel was named the RRS Sir David Attenborough, in honour of the filmmaker and naturalist who has contributed so much to our view of the planet and the joys of earth science.

However, in an acknowledgement of the democratically elected name, the UK has decided to use Boaty MacBoatface as the name for new autonomous vehicles to be used in future UK oceanographic research missions. As described by this link, Boaty MacBoatface will be inaugurated on the 2017 DynOPO cruise in the Southern Ocean. According to my UK colleagues, Boaty is an amazing tool for observational oceanography.