One of Bermuda?s bulky freighters is helping international scientists monitor climate change.

Each week, as the , owned by Bermuda Container Lines, leaves Newark for Bermuda bearing supplies, she collects vital measurements from the Gulf Stream with the aid of a scientific rider on board.

Bermuda Biological Station for Research senior research scientist and associate director of research, Dr. Nicholas Bates, described it as a tremendous partnership between the owners of and scientists who use the ship as a platform for scientific research. He said scientists became increasingly aware of the importance of ocean circulation and the cycling of elements such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen as regulators of earth?s climate back in the 1980s.

At the same time, concerns were growing about the potential for significant global warming from increased levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and other gases released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. The scientific rider on board, NOAA thermosalinograph, takes readings of carbon dioxide from the seawater which is pumped from the as it crosses the Gulf Stream.

The system is completely automatic and does not require anyone on board to operate it, but Dr. Bates hopes that this year, scientists participating in the global research will have an opportunity to accompany the crew of on several voyages ? making use of the opportunity to take deep water readings. Once the returns to Bermuda, scientists from BBSR collect the data which they merge with other data monitoring the effect of these gasses on the Atlantic Ocean and ultimately on climate change.

The project is part of an immense and costly reconnaissance of the Gulf Stream and its tributaries in which at least five countries are involved, including the UK which has committed about $40 million to the project.